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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTEKloU 



WATER-SUPPLY 



KRIG-ATION PAPEES 



UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



No. 6 



UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS.— Hawoeth 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1897 



IRRIGATION REPORTS. 

The following list contains the titles and brief descriptions of the principal reports 
relating to water supply and irrigation prepared by the United States Geological 
Survey since 1890: 

1890. 

First Annual Eeport of the United States Irrigation Survey, 1890, octavo, 123 pp. 

Printed as Part II, Irrigation, of the Tenth Annual Report of the United States Geological 
Survey, 1888-89. Contains a statement of the origin of the Irrigation Survey, a preliminary 
report on the organization and prosecution of the survey of the arid lands for purposes of irri- 
gation, and report of work done during 1890. 

1891. 

Second Annual Eeport of the United States Irrigation Survey, 1891, octavo, 395 pp. 

Published as Part II, Irrigation, of the Eleventh Annual Report of the United States Geolog- 
ical Survey, 1889-90. Contains a description of the hydrography of the arid region and of the 
engineering operations carried on by the Irrigation Survey during 1890; also the statement of 
the Director of the Survey to the House Committee on Irrigation, and other papers, including a 
bibliography of irrigation literature. Illustrated by 29 plates and 4 figures. 

Third Annual Eeport of the United States Irrigation Survey, 1891, octavo, 576 pp. 

Printed as Part II of the Twelfth Annual Eeport of the United States Geological Survey, 
1890-91. Contains a report upon the location and survey of reservoir sites during the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1891, by A. H. Thompson ; "Hydrography of the arid regions, " by F. H. 
Newell; "Irrigation in India," by Herbert M. Wilson. Illustrated by 93 plates and 190 figures. 

Bulletins of the Eleventh Census of the United States upon irrigation, prepared 
by F. H. Newell, quarto. 

No. 35, Irrigation in Arizona; No. 60, Irrigation in New Mexico; No. 85, Irriga- 
tion in Utah; No. 107, Irrigation in Wyoming; No. 153, Irrigation in Montana; 
No. 157, Irrigation in Idaho; No. 163, Irrigation in Nevada; No. 178, Irrigation 
in Oregon; No, 193, Artesian wells lor irrigation; No, J98 ; Irrigation in Wash- 
ington, 

1892. 

Irrigation of western United States, by F. H. Newell; extra census bulletin No. 23, 
September 9, 1892, quarto, 22 pp. 

Contains tabulations showing the total number, average size, etc., of irrigated holdings, the 
total area and average size of irrigated farms in the subhumid regions, the percentage or num- 
ber of farms irrigated, character of crops, value of irrigated lands, the average costof irrigation, 
the investment and profits, together with a resume of the water supply and a description of irri- 
gation by artesian wells, Illustrated by colored maps showing the location and relative extent 
of the irrigated areas. 

1893. 

Thirteenth Annu~l Eeport of the United States Geological Survey, 1891-92, Part III, 
Irrigation, 18w3, octavo, 486 pp. 

Consists of three papers : Water supply for irrigation, by I\ H. Newell ; American engineering 
and engineering results of the Irrigation Survey, by Herbert M. Wilson ; Construction of topo- 
graphic maps and selection and survey of reservoir sites, by A. H. Thompson. Illustrated by 
77 plates and 119 figures. 

A geological reconnoissance in central Washington, by Israel Cook Eussell, 1893, 
octavo, 108 pp., 15 plates. Bulletin No. 108 of the United States Geological 
Survey ; price, 15 cents. 

Contains a description of the examination of the geologio structure in and adjacent to the 
drainage basin of Yakima River and the great plains of the Columbia to the east of this area, 
with special reference to the occurrence of artesian waters. 



(Continued on third page of cover.) 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTEKKHJ 



WATER-SUPPLY 



IRRIGATION PAPERS 



UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



No. 6 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1897 



CMTFJ) STATES C.KOLOCK'AL SUEVEY 

CHARLES l>. WALCOTT, DIRECTOR 



UNDERGROUND WATERS OE SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS 



ERASMUS HAWOETH 




WASHINGTON. 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING -OFFICE 

1897 



X a H <v 



53467 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Letter of transmittal 9 

Introduction 11 

Source and disposition of water 11 

Surface evaporation 11 

Run-off . 12 

Soil moisture 14 

Available ground water 14 

Geologic conditions governing ground water 15 

Locating ground water _ . 17 

Geography of the area 19 

Physiography of the area 20 

General conditions . 20 

Cimarron River Valley . _ 21 

Crooked Creek Valley and fault 22 

Sand dunes. . 24 

Peculiar arroyo erosion 25 

Geology of the area. 26 

Red Beds 27 

Dakota 30 

Benton _ 31 

Tertiary 32 

Water supply of the area. 37 

Dakota sandstone water 38 

Character and occurrence of Dakota water 39 

Artesian properties of Dakota water 41 

How to find the Dakota sandstone 42 

Tertiary ground water 43 

Depth of Tertiary ground water 43 

Level of Tertiary ground water 45 

Meade County wells... ..1. 48 

Quantity of Tertiary ground water 56 

Difficulty of estimation 56 

Sources of Tertiary ground water 57 

Summary 62 

Irrigation development 62 

Index 05 

5 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 

Plate I. Geologic map of area covered by this report 26 

II. View of Red Beds Bluff, capped with Tertiary, on Johnsons Creek, 

near Cash, Meade County, Kansas 38 

III. Tertiary bluff and spring-fed pool, Duck Creek, 5 miles north of 

Dodge. Kansas. 32 

IV. Geologic sections of the area discussed in this report 42 

V. Map giving depth of ground water 44 

VI. View of Marr's artesian well, Meade, Kansas 50 

VII. View of Vick's artesian well and reservoir, north of Meade, Kansas. 52 
VIII. Head of irrigation ditch supplying the " Crooked L " ranch, Meade 

Country, Kansas 54 

IX. Windmill and reservoir at Garden, Kansas 56 

X. St. Jacobs well, Clark County, Kansas 60 

XL Head of Perry irrigation canal, Cimarron River, near Englewood, 

Kansas 62 

XII. Map of Clearmont ranch, near Englewood, Kansas, showing how 

water is drawn from the Cimarron and the principal laterals. .. 64 

Fig. 1. Diagrammatic section of hill at Lawrence, Kansas 16 

2. Reservoir and windmill pumping water from Dakota sandstone, 

about 18 miles south of Dodge, Kansas 40 



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 



Department of the Interior, 
United States Geological Survey, 

Division of Hydrography, 

Washington, April 9, 1897. 
Sir : I have the honor to transmit herewith a paper entitled Under- 
ground Waters of Southwestern Kansas, by Erasmus Haworth, 
geologist of the University Geological Survey of Kansas, and to rec- 
ommend that it be published as the sixth number of the series of 
Water-Supply and Irrigation Papers. 

The field work upon which this report is based was carried on by Pro- 
fessor Ha worth during the summer of 1896 in connection with the inves- 
tigations of the Division of Hydrography. Its object was to obtain 
detailed information concerning the amount and quality of the under- 
ground waters, in order to throw light upon the problems connected 
with the utilization of these in the development of agriculture upon 
the Great Plains. Although the investigations were of necessity con- 
fined to a somewhat limited area, the conclusions have a general 
value in showing the limitation to which similar areas of the public 
domain are subject. 

Very respectfully, 

F. H. Newell, 

Hydrographer in Charge. 
Hon. Charles D. Walcott, 

Director United States Geological Surrey. 



UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN 

KANSAS. 



By Erasmus Haworth. 

INTIIODKTIOX. 
SOURCE AND DISPOSITION OF WATER. 

All terrestrial water comes primarily from the ocean, whence it is 
taken by evaporation. It may then he carried by the winds to the far- 
thest portions of the dry-land areas and deposited on the surface of the 
ground, principally as rain, but partially as snow, mist, fog, or dew. 
No ground water available to man in any portion of our globe has had 
or can have any other ultimate source, whether we consider the water 
near the surface or that more deeply buried. 

Water thus left upon the dry land deports itself in a variety of ways, 
dependent upon the different conditions under which it is placed. A 
large portion is evaporated directly from the surface before it has had 
an opportunity to run off or to be absorbed by the soil or to penetrate 
to greater depths. Of that which is absorbed, large portions are 
ultimately dissipated by evaporation from growing vegetation. A sec- 
ond portion runs from the plains and hillsides down into the streams 
and rapidly returns to the ocean whence it came, while a smaller por- 
tion more gradually works its way into the same streams by seeps and 
springs and reaches the same destination. Other portions soak into 
the soil and ground and serve as a permanent supply of moisture in 
the soils and surface coverings; while still other but lesser parts sink 
below the surface soils and below the roots of vegetation, where they 
remain a constant source of available water existing in sufficient quan- 
tities to more than saturate the ground, and hence become available 
when drill or spade penetrates it. Each of these several methods of 
deportment is important to the student of hydrology, and may there- 
fore briefly be considered here. 

SURFACE EVAPORATION. 

A large but varying proportion of the total rainfall is evaporated 
from the surface before it has had an opportunity to run off or to be 
absorbed by the ground. The proportion thus evaporated varies 
greatly in different parts of the world and under different conditions 
of season and tillage of the soil. The dry, hot winds, the scorching 

11 



12 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

rays of sunshine, and often the hot soil itself cause evaporation. 
Summer seasons and arid climates are most favorable for rapid evap- 
oration. In countries where the rainfall is light, the climate warm, 
and the soil barren of vegetation the little rainfall that does occur is 
largely evaporated, but in the lowlands adjacent to large bodies of 
water in cool climates, where the precipitation is abundant, the evap- 
oration is very light. The character of soil and soil covering also has 
a great influence upon the rate of evaporation. A mulch of any char- 
acter whatever greatly retards the evaporating action. In cultivated 
fields a thin mulch of dust or of straw or other litter has this retard- 
ing influence, making the condition of tilth an important factor in 
determining the extent of evaporation. 

RUN-OFF. • 

The water which flows from the plains and hillsides down into the 
streams has been called the "run-off." The percentage of total pre- 
cipitation thus disposed of depends upon a number of conditions, such 
as aridity of climate, amount of moisture already in the soil, rapid- 
ity of precipitation, and the general character of the ground upon 
which the precipitation falls. 

Other conditions being equal, the drier the soil the greater its 
absorptive powers. An ordinary rain falling upon a dry, cultivated 
field will be almost entirety absorbed ; but if the ground is already 
charged with moisture nearly all the rain will run off the surface and 
be carried away through the ordinary drainage channels. The per 
cent of the total rainfall which joins the run-off in humid climates is 
therefore much greater than in arid climates unless other conditions 
modify the results. In general, therefore, the proportion of the total 
rainfall which may be counted on for filling reservoirs in arid and 
semiarid climates is much less than in humid climates. 

The rapidity of precipitation is an important factor in the calcula- 
tion of the relative percentages of rainfall and run-off. A mild rain 
continued through many hours will give but little run-off, while the 
same amount falling in a fourth or an eighth the time will give a 
greatly increased run-oif. Unfortunately the climatic conditions are 
such in nearly all the arid portions of the world that what little rain 
does fall comes in the form of hard,. driving storms. On the Great 
Plains of America it is by no means unusual for a 2-inch rain to fall 
in as many hours, while instances are of yearly occurrence in which 
4 inches or more falls within one hour. Under such conditions almost 
all the water runs off, except in the most sandy places. 

The most important of all the conditions named affecting the run- 
off is the character of the ground upon which the water falls. A 
loose, porous soil will absorb a large portion of a rainfall, as will also 
a sandy soil, while a close, compact soil sheds the greater part of it. 
Here the geologic conditions of a country become important. An 



HAWOETH RUN-OFF. 13 

area composed principally »>!' a close-grained shale, and a soil result- 
ing the re from, which generally lias a coinpad clay subsoil, has inferior 
absorptive properties, while one composed principally of sandstone 
and sand will let but little water run away. 

The flood plains of rivers frequently have little power of absorption. 
In times of overflow a thin layer of a fine-grained sedimenl is depos- 
ited, which is partially cemented by an organic mucilage produced by 
the decomposition of organic matter of one kind or another. This 
material is almost entirely impervious to water, a thin layer of it 
being sufficient to prevent downward percolation, no matter how sandy 
the soil is below. Illustrations of such conditions may he found in 
many places along the valleys of the Arkansas River, the Rio Grande, 
and other streams, particularly those which rise at high elevations 
and have a strong velocity throughout their upper course and a low 
velocity farther downstream. 

In times of freshet the muddy water drawn from the streams into 
irrigation ditches always deposits a him of sediment over the bottom 
of the ditch, provided its fall is not too great. This fills the little 
spaces between the grains of sand in the soil and renders the ditch 
water-tight. Likewise, when such a stream overfloAvs its banks the 
muddy water deposits a corresponding film of fine mud over nearly 
the whole of the valley covered by the water, a filling-in process which, 
continued from century to century, forms an important part of the 
alluvial soils of the valley. Along the Arkansas Valley such an accu- 
mulation of silt has produced beds varying from 1 to G or more feet 
in thickness, a covering that will scarcely let water pass through it 
until it is loosened by cultivation. The common method of making 
reservoirs in the valley is based upon the impermeability of the soil 
to water, and such reservoirs require much less puddling to make 
them water-tight than those in localities where more sand is present in 
the soil. 

Along the Rio Grande the well-known adobe soils are of the same 
general character. The adobe is a thin covering, generally from 1 to 
3 feet thick, along the river flood plain, resting upon a mass of sand 
or sandy soil. A pool of water in such an adobe soil will remain in 
place until evaporated; but should a hole be made through the adobe 
covering into the sand below, the water will quickly sink. 

Many of the upland areas in different parts of the world were at 
one time the flood plains of rivers, and were more or less covered 
with such fine sediments, and now constitute close-grained, compact 
soils, allowing but a small amount of water to penetrate them. Wind 
action, too, often helps to produce an impervious soil by blowing the 
finer particles of dust away from some localities and lodging them in 
others. Generally there is a compensating action here, for the 
coarser materials left behind form a covering with a high degree of 
absorptive power, and therefore decrease the amount of run-off. 



14 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

SOIL MOISTURE. 

A portion of the rainfall is consumed in keeping the soil moist. 
The ground can yield no water unless a portion of it is more than 
moist. It is not the amount of water a soil or stratum holds that is 
important, but the amount it will give up when penetrated. In 
recent years considerable work has been done in determining the 
capacity of different soils to hold moisture. This is an important 
investigation in connection with agriculture, and in calculating the 
percentage of run-off, but in connection with the problem of available 
underground water supply it is of less value, because it does not 
show the proportion of water that will be given up when the mate- 
rials are punctured by the drill. In fact, the best character of 
ground for producing a good water supply is one which will not admit 
of a high percentage of soil moisture, but rather a soil that will 
readily yield almost all its moisture to the general water reservoir 
below. A sandy soil or a loose, open sandstone will gather large 
quantities of water from the rainfall and pass it down to the reser- 
voirs below, where it is held available, while a soil with a greater 
capacity for holding moisture will yield less to the pump. 

AVAILABLE GROUND WATER. 

Throughout the humid regions of the world, with few exceptions, 
water can be found everywhere within a few feet of the surface, so that 
it is the common experience to obtain water for domestic uses by dig- 
ging from 5 to 100 feet. This condition is so common that the masses 
of mankind throughout the humid areas of the world have come to 
look upon it as certain, and rarely give it any special consideration, 
and the industries and operations of civilized man are based upon a 
belief in the perpetual continuance of such condition. 

The available ground water in all localities and under all circum- 
stances is the residue of the rainfall after the portions mentioned 
above — the evaporation, the run-off, and the soil moisture — have been 
deducted. Each of them must be supplied, in whole or in part, before 
any available ground water can exist. In many places there is an 
underground movement, so that the available water under a given 
area may have fallen only in part as rain upon the surface at that 
place; yet somewhere and sometime it must have fallen as rain, some 
of which was evaporated, some carried off by the drainage, some held 
as soil moisture, and the remainder sunk below the surface, below the 
reach of growing plants, and held in an underground reservoir, invit- 
ing the spade or the drill to discover it and the pump to lift it to the 
surface. But even yet the wastes are not satisfied, for portions of 
this underground water are carried by underground drainage to the 
surfaces of ravines and bluffs, bursting forth as springs, and thus join- 
ing the general body of the run-off. 



haworth.] GROUND WATER. 15 

GEOLOGIC CONDITIONS GOVERNING GROUND WATER. 

The stratified rocks of the earth arc a heterogeneous mass of mat- 
ter arranged in layers one above another. The strata are no1 coex- 
tensive with the surface of the earth, but sonic of them OCCUr al one 
place and others at other places, each Lapping under or over its neigh- 
bor, quite like shingles on a roof. Some of the strata arc composed 
of loose, porous material, such as sandstone or badly fractured lime- 
stone, so that water can readily pass through them. Others are formed 
from the accumulation of finer sediments, such as clay and the finest 
of silt, while still other parts of the earth are composed of the crystal- 
line rocks, such as granite, porphyry, and syenite. No substance 
known forming a constituent part of the earth is entirely impervious 
to water. The solid granite and the compact limestone and marble 
alike have moisture within them, commonly called "quarry sap," 
showing that water penetrates them. Compact, plastic clay is perhaps 
about as good a nonconductor of w r ater as is known, while beds of sand 
and gravel are at the opposite extreme, allowing water to pass through 
them with relatively little resistance. The surface of the ground 
almost everywhere has a covering of residual soils, sands, and clays, 
varying from a few r inches to many feet in thickness. This usually 
has high absorptive power for water, so that a large amount is received 
from the rains as they fall. 

When the surface water comes in contact with the porous strata it 
is absorbed and immediately begins moving downward, or as nearly in 
that direction as possible. Sooner or later it comes in contact with an 
impervious stratum below, and thereafter can only move laterally 
down the incline of that surface. The rapidity of motion will now 
depend principally upon two conditions — the angle of inclination of 
the impervious surface and the degree of porosity of the material 
through which the water moves. Should this be a mass of gravel or 
sand or porous sandstone, the motion will be sufficient to be easily 
detected, and somewhere farther down the water will reappear as 
springs or seeps, supplying the streams with "living" water. It 
matters not whether this porous stratum is on the surface of the 
ground in the form of a soil covering or whether it is deeply buried 
by impervious layers, the water movement within it will be practi- 
cally the same. When the latter condition prevails and a sufficient 
head is produced, a well drilled through the upper and impervious 
layers allows the water to rise through the drill hole, and an artesian 
well results. Where the porous layer is on the surface, as is often 
the case on the Great Plains, no pressure or head can be produced, 
for the water is simply running down an inclined surface with nothing 
above to prevent it from rising, so that it would be comparable to 
water flowing down a wide open trough. 

A good illustration of this latter condition is found near the Uni- 
versity of Kansas, at Lawrence. In 1893 the university authorities 



16 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

decided to own their own water supply. An investigation was there- 
fore made to ascertain whether a sufficient supply could be had within 
a reasonable distance of the buildings. It was found that on the south 
side of the hill a large amount of debris produced by the decomposi- 
tion of the limestone and shales of the hill had accumulated on the 
hillside, and that it was well charged with water. Fig. 1, drawn to 
scale, shows the conditions. The hill is composed principally of a 
fine-grained impervious shale, with a limestone mass (A) on top. At 
the boiler house, 300 feet south of the brow of the hill, the debris was 
found to be 40 feet deep. A well dug here (B) during the driest part of 
a dry year showed that the amount of water was not very considerable. 
At points farther down the hillside the water was more abundant. 
Finally, a large well was put down at the point C, 1,000 feet south of 
the brow of the hill, and galleries about 6 feet in height were run both 
east and west, just on top of the undecomposed shale, to intercept the 



Fig. 1.— Diagrammatic section of hill at Lawrence, Kansas. 

water as it moved down the slope and drain it into the well. It was 
reasoned that this greater distance from the summit of the hill was 
necessary because the gathering area above the boiler house was so 
limited that an insufficient amount of water would be obtained at that 
point, but that with the added distance to where the well was finally 
located a gathering area of sufficient extent was passed, considering 
that the average rainfall at Lawrence is a little more than 35 inches 
annually. Southward the thickness of the debris gradually decreases, 
so that a mile away it is only an ordinary soil above the undecomposed 
shale. Were the debris a mass of coarse sand, similar to that so often 
found in the western part of the State, without doubt the water would 
soon all run down the hillside and appear as springs in many places,* 
but the debris from a mass of shale is principally a clay, which lets the 
water through it very slowly, and therefore its southward movement 
is so slow that little reaches the extreme southern limit of the debris. 



MAw.iiiTii. GROUND WATER. 17 

Yd iii tin- vicinity of the well ;i water supply is found sufficient to 
produce 5,000 gallons a day almost all the year, and 10,000 in wet 
weather, an anion nt which could be increased indefinitely by extending 
the east -west galleries. 

Here we have ;i good illustration of the underground water plane 
having a very concave surface facing upward, instead, of the water 
lying in the form of an underground lake, with a level surface, it is a 
mass of water held in the clay in such a manner that its upper sur- 
face is nearly parallel with the highly inclined surface of the ground. 
We may speak of the (day within the body of water as being more 
than saturated, using the term saturated to mean holding a water 
content just ■equal to the largest amount the (day can hold without 
being compelled to give up a pari of it- whenever an Opening is made 
into it. When the clay is in this condition and more water is added 
to it, this extra amount will run out into the opening made. 

As the well at the point (' was being dug if was noticed that the 
clay was moist almost from the surface, but that no water came into 
the well until it had reached to within about 6 feet of the undecom- 
posed shale. Here the point of saturation was reached, and any 
greater depth passed clay which was more than saturated, that is, 
had more water within it than it could hold back from running into 
the well. This extra amount in excess of saturation is the available 
water in all cases. It is that which has an underground movement, 
and which is available in so many parts of the world as supply 
for man. 

In the area under consideration, in the western part of Kansas, we 
find conditions remarkably similar to those just described for Law- 
rence. We have a broad expanse of country on which rain falls, and 
has been falling since the close of Tertiary time, and possibly longer. 
The surface of the ground is usually well adapted for the absorption 
of large amounts of this rainfall. After absorption the water obeys 
the laws of gravity and moves downward, except such portions as 
are used by the growing vegetation and for moistening the soil. The 
remainder continues downward until if meets with a stratum which 
is so nearly impervious that it is almost entirely arrested, after which 
it moves slowly along the upper surface of the impervious floor in a 
manner similar to the water in the clays at Lawrence. This floor 
lies at varying depths in different parts of the Great Plains area, 
sometimes so deep that the upper surface of saturation can not be 
reached within 200 feet, while at other places it comes entirely to the 
surface of the ground. 

LOCATING GROUND WATER. 

The ability to locate ground water is a qualification desired by 
many and possessed by few who do not understand the principles 
governing ground- water movement. The "open sesame" of myth- 
ical times gave way to the wand of the wizard, an instrument still 
irr 6 2 



18 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no.6. 

employed in many parts of the civilized world, usually in the form of 
a forked twig from the bough of a tree, but occasionally a branch, 
forked or otherwise, from the bough of some particular tree or shrub. 
In a majority of cases, predictions in humid climates made by the 
use of the wand prove to be correct unless impervious material is met 
with in digging, for the whole ground is more or less saturated with 
water. 

As above stated, the water which falls as rain or snow is partially 
absorbed by the surface materials and starts on its downward course 
under the influence of gravity. The laws governing its movements 
are identical with those which govern the movement of surface water. 
When impervious material is reached the water is arrested in its 
movements unless it can pass down an inclined plane, the surface of 
the impervious mass. If limestone or granite or other solid rock is 
reached, the water will follow the fissures in the rock, and will often 
ultimately be brought to the surface as springs along ravines and 
hillsides. 

The proper way of considering the matter is to look upon the 
whole of the subsurface part of the ground as containing available 
water except where impervious materials exist. If a heavy bed of 
shale is found which is close-grained and comrjact, it is useless to look 
for water within it. Many examples are met with in mining opera- 
tions which illustrate this, a few of which may be cited. In mining 
for rock salt at Lyons, Kansas, a mass of loose surface material was 
found to extend downward for nearly 300 feet. This was so thoroughly 
charged with water, particularly near the bottom, that it interfered 
seriously with the mining. Below this a bed of fine-grained Permian 
shale was reached, in which the salt is found. This shale is particu- 
larly impervious to water, as is shown by the fact that no water has 
come into the shaft since the surface water was shut out, although the 
shaft is 1,000 feet deep. Similar conditions are found in drilling for 
oil and gas in Kansas and elsewhere. Often a heavy bed of shale or 
a solid body of limestone is met Avhich has no water whatever within 
it. The gas fields of Indiana likewise have similar conditions. Here, 
after passing through a few hundred feet of water-bearing materials, 
a 300-foot bed of fine-grained solid shale is found lying immediately 
over the Trenton gas-bearing limestone. This shale is impervious to 
water, and lets none of the surface water pass downward through it, 
and none of the deeper-seated Avater pass upward. It is so dry that 
water has to be added while drilling in it. 

The existence of such shale beds, or beds of other impervious 
materials, can generally be recognized by the geologist by surface 
conditions if he is familiar with a sufficiently wide range of country; 
otherwise the drill is the only means of discovering it. Wherever 
large masses of such materials, or of granite or other solid and imper- 
vious crystalline rock, cover a wide extent of country, the only hope 



HAWORTH.] GEOGRAPHY OF THE AREA. 10 

of finding ground water is along the ravines and hillsides, where a 
sufficient amounl of surface debris lias accumulated 1<> hold the local 
rainfall, as already explained for Lawrence, Kansas. 

Where limestone is the prevailing rock il usually has so many fis- 
sures thai water finds its way into them and works downward and 
oul through openings along the creeks and hind's, so that much of if 
finally joins the run-off. Under such conditions well digging is haz- 
ardous, often resulting in failure. It is here that the term "vein" 
of water is applicable, a term which is generally used indiscrimi- 
nately, whether the wafer occurs in veins or in broad beds of water- 
bearing materials. Here the "water witch " is in most demand. 

In such countries careful observation of surface conditions will 
usually yield good results. The water slowly but surely dissolves the 
limestone, so that a falling in of the materials above to an appre- 
ciable degree is frequently noticed, often resulting ultimately in the 
production of a ravine of considerable size. The number of fissures 
along the bluffs will give some idea of the abundance of fissures gen- 
erally, and therefore of the probability of one being found where a 
well is desired. But best of all and surest of all in such localities is 
it to search for places where the surface covering is heavy enough to 
hold the surface water. Few places in humid climates can be found 
where this is not sufficient for all ordinary purposes. By far the 
greater proportion of all the well water and spring water of the world 
comes from this source. On the great plains of western Kansas the 
surface covering is generally abundant and heavy, and holds surpris- 
ing^ 7 large quantities of water. To give a detailed description of the 
water supply of a limited portion of the plains of Kansas is the object 
of this paper. 

GEOGRAPHY OF THE AREA. 

The area discussed in this report is located in southwestern Kansas, 
and covers 1 degree each of latitude and longitude. It is bounded 
on the east by the one hundredth meridian west from Greenwich, on 
the west by the one hundred and first meridian, on the south by the 
thirty-seventh parallel, and on the north by the thirty-eighth. It 
includes all of Meade County, nearly all of Seward, Haskell, and Gray 
counties, about one-third of Ford County, and one-fourth of Finney 
County. Its eastern limit is approximately the line between ranges 
24 and 25 west of the sixth principal meridian, and that on the west 
side near the middle of range 34. Its south line is about the middle 
of township 35, and the north line is the line between townships 23 
and 24. It is, therefore, approximately 56 by 69 miles square, equal 
to about 3,864 square miles, or about two and a half million acres. 
It corresponds to four of the United States Geological Survey quad- 
rangles, known as the Meade, Dodge, and Garden, and the one south 
of the Garden, not yet surve3 7 ed. 

The Arkansas River enters this area at the northwest and flows 



'20 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

across it in a southeasterly direction, passing out 16 miles south of the 
northeast corner. The Cimarron River passes across the southwest 
corner of the area, leaving the State near the middle of the southern 
boundary, but flows near the south line throughout the remaining dis- 
tance to the one hundredth meridian. There is but one other stream 
of any considerable consequence in the area, Crooked Creek, a stream 
which rises near the central part and, after meandering in a manner 
indicated by its name, enters the Cimarron just south of the State 
line, near the southeast corner of the Meade quadrangle. Aside from 
these streams, a few lesser ones occur in the northeastern part of the 
Dodge quadrangle, Avhich drain northeast into the Pawnee — such as 
Duck Creek, the Sawlog, and the Buckner. 

A fair idea of the elevations of the area under consideration may 
be gained from the following data : The Arkansas River on the east 
border is 2,460 feet above sea level, and at Sherlock, in the extreme 
northwestern corner, its level is 2,860 feet, the river making an aggre- 
gate fall of 400 feet while crossing the area. The bluffs immediately 
north of the river at Dodge are 2,600 feet high, while in the extreme 
northeastern part the elevation is only 2,460 feet, or the same as that of 
the river at Dodge. The southeastern corner of the Meade quadran- 
gle, near Englewood, has an elevation of 1,960 feet, and the southwest 
corner of the area, about 4 miles west of Liberal, has an elevation of 
approximately 2,900 feet. It is therefore a plain, or table-land, with 
the western edge nearly horizontal, sloping to the east with an average 
rate of about 7.1 feet per mile along the north end and nearly 17 feet 
per mile along the south. 

The eastern border, therefore, slopes toward the south, making the 
southeast corner much the lowest part of the whole area. The eleva- 
tions immediately adjacent to the Arkansas River are greater than 
can be found either north or south, except those in the southwest 
corner of the area, where we have higher land than exists along the 

river. 

PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE AREA. 

GENERAL CONDITIONS. 

The general physiographic features are those of a broad peneplain 
sloping gently to the east, into which, at different places, channels 
have been worn by recent processes of erosion. All the streams with 
their tributaries, except Arkansas River, appear to be mere channels 
cut down into the general plain. The Arkansas, on the contrary, 
throughout the most of its course within this area, seems to be a chan- 
nel cut into a ridge extending from west to east, as though at one 
time the river had built its banks higher than the land on either side 
and had subsequently deepened its channel and produced a flood plain 
averaging more than 2 miles in width. Both east and west of here 
the conditions become more nearly normal, as is shown by tributaries 
entering the river from both sides. 



haworth.] PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE AREA. 21 

North of the river, where the surface slopes to the northeast, the 
northeastern drainage often approaches 1<> within a mile ami a half 
of the Arkansas River. The almost complete absence of any tribu- 
taries enteringthe river from the north is remarkable. <>n the south 
the condil ions in this resped are not quite so extraordinary . A st rip 
of country varying in width from 1 to is miles iscovered with masses 
of sand, which have been blown by the winds in recent times into 
exceedingly irregularly shaped hills and hillocks. Throughout a part 
of tins area tributaries of the river rise from 6 to LO miles south and 
work their way through the sand hills to the river. In most instances, 
even on the south, the drainage toward the southeast approaches sur- 
prisingly elose to the bluffs on the south side of the Arkansas River. 

In the northeast portion of the Dodge quadrangle the drainage is 
all to the northeast, the waters of which ultimately enter Arkansas 
River, near Lamed, through the Pawnee. As the surface is inclined 
fully 10 feet to the mile, these little tributaries have cut their chan- 
nels from 100 to 150 feet deep, and present sometimes almost precip- 
itous bluffs, which bound the narrow flood plains of the different 
streams. 

Over all the southern two-thirds of the area under consideration the 
drainage is entirely to the southeast. The inclination of the surface 
in this direction is quite rapid, averaging along the line from Santa 
Fe through Meade to Englewood more than 16 feet to the mile. The 
general appearance of the whole country is that of a broad, level plain, 
with almost no variations of any kind, except here and there where a 
tributary of the Cimarron or of Crooked Creek has worn its channel 
downward into the plain. These channels are usually quite narrow, 
with very rugged bluff lines, produced by the channels being cut to 
depths of 100 to 150 feet, and in extreme cases to greater depths. 
When one is standing on the plain the whole country appears to be 
level, but to one in a valley of a stream the bluff lines are so rugged 
and so varied that almost a mountainous aspect is presented. This 
is particularly the case along the Cimarron in the vicinity of Arka- 
lon and along Crooked Creek and its tributaries almost anywhere 
below Meade. 

CIMARRON RIVER VALLEY. 

The valley of the Cimarron rarely exceeds 2 miles in width through- 
out its course across the Meade quadrangle, but it has scarcely passed 
beyond these limits when it suddenly widens to an unusual extent. 
Beginning a few miles above Englewood, it has a valley more than 5 
miles wide. North of Englewood is a valley, or an area which seems 
to be a valley of erosion, 10 or 12 miles wide, now covered to varying 
depths with sand which has a very little silt and soil intermingled. 
Such a wide valley appearing so suddenly along the course of a stream 
is very interesting, as its origin is hard to determine. The bluff lines 
forming the western and northern boundaries correspond remarkably 



22 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

with those on the south side of the Cimarron. The general appear- 
ance of the valley, only a small portion of which is west of the one- 
hundredth meridian, is that of a valley of erosion, with the sandhills 
representing the residual sands left behind after the surface drainage 
had carried away the finer silt and clay. 

The Cimarron seems to have reached base-level and to have begun 
meandering across its flood plain. Beautiful oxbow curves are fre- 
quent, and a sluggish nature is everywhere manifest during times of 
low water. The lesser tributaries usually have deep, narrow valleys, 
except near where they break through the bluff lines into the Cimar. 
ron. Here they often widen into surprising forms, and generally have 
their flood plains strewn with residual sands retained from the Tertiary 
beds of sand and clay. 

CROOKED CREEK VALLEY AND FAULT. 

Crooked Creek, the third largest stream in this area, has some anom- 
alous features which make it interesting. It rises in the eastern part 
of Haskell County and flows almost due east to near the little village 
of Wilburn. Here it suddenly turns to the southwest, making an 
angle of about 60° with itself, to about 20 miles south of Meade, where 
it bears southeastward to its junction with the Cimarron River. The 
sharp angle in its course at Wilburn and its southwestern course 
between Wilburn and Meade, across a country with a maximum incli- 
nation to the southeast, are anomalous for a stream in southwestern 
Kansas. The area in the southeastern part of Meade County is gashed 
here and there with lesser drainage channels, all of which drain to 
the southeast in lines approximately parallel with the lower part of 
Crooked Creek. Some of these lesser channels rise almost on the east- 
ern bank of Crooked Creek, leaving an unaltered table-land along the 
eastern bank of the creek, often little more than a mile in width, as 
is well shown on the Meade topographic sheet. 

These peculiar physiographic conditions in the vicinity of Crooked 
Creek, in connection with geological data gathered from wells, led the 
writer to conclude that local deformation had produced them, and a 
preliminary notice of the same was published, 1 from which the follow- 
ing extracts may be taken : 

The "bluff lines along Crooked Creek are quite interesting in character, particu- 
larly below Meade. Throughout the portion of its course where it flows east the 
bluffs on either side of the creek are not especially different from the ordinary. 
Tributaries from the north are most numerous, but quite a number are found 
entering the creek from the south in the northwestern part of Meade County. 
Farther east, opposite the artesian area, no tributaries of any consequence are 
found on the south, while arroyos of greater or less size are found every mile or 
two on the north. For 20 miles below the sharp angle at Wilburn scarcely a 
tributary as much as 2 miles in length enters from the east, while below Meade 
the drainage streams flowing southeast to the Cimarron rise almost on the verge 
of the eastern bluffs of Crooked Creek. Throughout this distance many tributaries 

i Am. Jour. Sci., 4th series, Vol. II, 1896, p. 368. 



haworth.] CROOKED CREEK VALLEY AND FAULT. 23 

enter from the west, the most important being Spring Creek, aboul 12 miles long, 

and Stump Arroyo, marly us long. 

The general character of the uplands is thai of a broad plain inclined to the 
southeast about n> feel to the mile. The various drainage channels are cut down 
into this plain, generally producing abrupt bluff s on each side. From Wilburn 
to Meade, however, the bluffs Of < 'rooked ( 'reek are far apart . wit h t he whole of 
the artesian area between. Below Meade the bluffs on the east side of thecreek 
are high and abrupt, often being almost precipitous in character. They have a 
decidedly new appearance, as though the erosion which produced them was very 
modern. Almost none of the rounded tonus of old age are to be found, but the 
annular points and steep walls of recent formation are everywhere present. On 
the western side there is a gently sloping plain stretching from the creek to from 
1 to 5 miles away, producing an appearance scarcely duplicated within the State. 
The general upland plain from 8 to 12 miles to the west of Crooked Creek both 
physiographically and geologically corresponds with the plain on the east of the 
creek, which approaches to within less than a quarter of a mile of the creek val- 
ley. The general appearance from Meade southward is that of a fault, with the 
western wall dropped and Crooked Creek occupying a position over the fault line. 
Northward the whole artesian valley seems to have been dropped downward, 
leaving an abrupt wall on the west and a more geiitle wall on the east. Standing 
anywhere in the valley, one can see the wall all around. On the west it is con- 
siderably over 100 feet in height, while to the east it is somewhat less, but still 
very perceptible. We have here a valley occupying about 60 square miles which 
is so different from anything else known in this part of the country that it is 
exceedingly difficult to explain its origin by attributing it to erosion. The peculiar 
position of the creek is likewise hard to explain by ordinary erosion. The sharp 
angle at Wilburn and the southwestern direction for nearly 20 miles across a 
plain sloping to the southeast are certainly very remarkable, and probably have 
a cause different from that which ordinarily determines the location and direction 
of streams. But if in post-Tertiary times a triangular area equaling in size and 
position the present artesian area could have dropped 100 feet or more, with a 
single fault line extending southward to beyond the limits of Kansas, thereby 
changing the direction of Crooked Creek into the present channel below Wilburn, 
the general physiographic conditions could easily be accounted for. 

It should be added that there is a chain of wet- weather lakes reaching eastward 
from Wilburn to the north of Minneola which may represent the former channel 
of the eastward extension of Crooked Creek. An examination of the country 
lends more color to this view than can be gained from the United States topo- 
graphic sheets, for 20-foot contour lines often fail to represent physiographic 
conditions of great importance in such studies as these. 

Along the upper part of Crooked Creek, from a few miles above 
Wilburn, the general conditions are those of a stream that has not yet 
reached base-level. In the artesian area and at all points below, the 
creek has a valley of considerable width and the general appearance 
of a stream which has long ago reached its base-level. The numerous 
ox-bow curves, due to the migration of the channel, are everywhere 
present. In addition to this, it is generally found that it has built up 
its banks until they are higher than the adjacent valleys. This is true 
to a perceptible degree almost entirely through the artesian valley, and 
is also true, but to a less extent, in the valley below Meade. 

The general uplands of the area under consideration have the appear- 
ance of a broad peneplain which has been so elevated that a new set 
of flood plains is now being produced along the various channels. In 



24 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

the western part the inclination of the surface is uniform and gentle, 
and but few channels of any description are found. The rapid incli- 
nation of the surface to the southeast throughout nearly all Meade 
County and the southern part of Seward County gives so great a fall 
to the streams that their erosive action is more pronounced, and con- 
sequently the surface has been changed to greater depth and a corre- 
sponding rugged topography produced. The rainfall is so meager that 
few of the streams have water in them as much as a quarter of the 
year. Those which have worn their channels deep enough to come 
into contact with the general underflow water have springs and seeps 
in great abundance along them, and pools of living water throughout 
the entire year. This wearing down probably has occurred, however, 
since the main part of the erosion was done, and consequently has 
exerted but a limited influence on the general physiographic features. 

SAND DUNES. 

One of the interesting topographic features frequently observed is 
that produced by the sand hills or sand dunes. On the south side of 
the Arkansas, throughout its entire length in this area, a strip of 
country varying from 4 to as much as 15 or 18 miles in width is cov- 
ered by loose sand which has been blown by the winds into the hills 
and hummocks so common in sandy countries. The area is exceed- 
ingly irregular in its southern boundary. In some places it is not 
more than 3 or 4 miles across, while in others the distance is much 
greater. Near the western side of the Garden quadrangle the sand 
hills reach southward from the river almost uninterruptedly to within 
Haskell County, a distance of from 18 to 20 miles. Immediately 
south of Garden the sand hills extend only about 7 or 8 miles, where a 
strip of country is reached on which there is but little sand. But 
farther east, through the eastern tier of townships in Haskell County 
and Finney County, another southern projection of the sand hills area 
reaches from 12 to 15 miles south of the river. Still farther east, in 
Gray County, south of Ingalls and Cimarron, the sands likewise 
extend from 12 to 18 miles south of the river, or to within 5 or 6 miles 
of Montezuma. East of this area again, throughout the remainder 
of the Dodge quadrangle, the sand hills area gradually contracts in 
width, so that immediately south of Dodge it is only 4 or 5 miles in 
width. The extent and location of the sand hills are well represented 
on the topographic sheets of the United States Geological Survey. 

In most places, both north and south of the river, outside of the 
area of river sand hills, relatively little sand is found on the uplands. 
In the vicinity of Wilburn and Fowler, however, east of Crooked 
Creek, an area of sand hills exists, covering 50 square miles or more, 
which has a general appearance similar to that of the river sand hills 
area. The character of the sand is practically the same, and in most 
respects the conditions south of the Arkansas River are duplicated. 



HAWORTH.] SAND DUNES. 25 

Again, in the southeast part of Meade County, in the broad Cimarron 
Valley 1<> the north of EJnglewood, an area of from 12 to L8 miles in 
width is covered with sand dunes which are practically the same as 

those on the south side of t lit' Arkansas. The whole face of the coun- 
try here for many miles up and down the Cimarron River, excepl 
some irregularly shaped areas, is covered with the sand. Theexcep- 
tions referred to arc peculiar and interesting. The greater pari of 
the valley occupied by Colonel Perry's ranch has but few sand hills. 
Here we have an area 1 or 5 miles across, lying between the sand hills 
proper and the Cimarron River, the general character of whose soil is 
thai of the alluvial soil common to the Hood plains of rivers. Far- 
ther down the river to the east the sand hills approach almost to the 
river bank. 

To the north of Englewood, where the sand hills are best developed, 
a portion of which territory lies within the Meade quadrangle, the 
sand practically covers the whole face of the country. It is blown 
into hills and valleys, irregular in outline and position, with no 
apparent indication of the directions from which the principal winds 
came. Here and there the sand is still blowing, producing barefaced 
hills with no vegetable covering, showing that the movement is still 
in progress. The greater part of the surface, however, is well cov- 
ered with vegetation, which implies a cessation of the sand move- 
ment. The principal sand dunes seem to be residual in character — 
masses of sand left behind after the finer parts have been carried 
away bj T wind and water. For a fuller treatment of this subject the 
reader is referred to a discussion of the Physical Properties of the 
Tertiary, by the writer, in Volume II, University Geological Survey of 
Kansas. 

PECULIAR ARROYO EROSION. 

A peculiar form of valley erosion is noticed throughout western 
Kansas, a form thus far unobserved elsewhere by the writer, and one 
upon which no literature seems to exist. The lesser tributaries to 
the principal drainage channels in their uppermost course frequently 
are quite void of water almost the entire year. As a result of this, 
buffalo grass or blue stem entirely covers the bottom of the arroyos. 
Such arroyos usually are from 50 to 200 feet in width, even to their 
very sources. The peculiar and characteristic feature of such arroyos 
is the shape of the bank at the margins. In almost all instances over 
the whole western part of Kansas such arroyos have a vertical wall 
at the outside part of the bank, varying in height from 2 to 3 feet to 
a minimum of only a few inches. The whole bottom of the arroyo is, 
as a rule, covered with grass, and seems to have no corrasion marks 
along it. But on the outer borders the arroyo is separated from 
the main upland plain by the vertical wall. This feature is some- 
times noted to a limited extent along the little sink holes which are so 
abundant in this part of the country. Some of these depressions, 



26 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSNS. [no.6. 

measuring no more than 10 or 15 feet across, have the buffalo grass 
growing all over them, and have their walls assuming this vertical 
character, in every respect similar to the walls of the arroyos. 

These interesting features of the physiography of the Tertiary plains 
seem to have been caused by the underground creeping of the looser 
sands and clay which are not held together by the grass roots of the 
sod. As water is so rare in the arroyos, the conditions are as favor- 
able for the growth of vegetation in the bottom of the arroyos them- 
selves as on the uplands. When the rains come, the ground is softened 
probably more in the arroyos than elsewhere, and is thereby made 
more easily movable. The existence of the water is of so short a . 
duration that the mechanical action of its flow is not sufficient to.cor- 
rade the surface. But as the inclination is generally quite steep, and 
as the water softens the clays and sands, gravity will cause a slow, 
but constant creeping downstream of the material which is not held 
in place by the grass roots. In this way the effect is similar to that 
which would be produced were a blanket spread from bank to bank 
of the arroyo, a blanket which was not removed or carried away by 
the drainage, but which would allow the grounds beneath to become 
softened and creep downstream by the influence of gravity. The 
blanket in question would move vertically downward as the material 
beneath it was carried away, and the vertical walls at the outside of 
the blanket w r ould be maintained, constantly growing higher as the 
materials from beneath were removed by the downward creeping. 

GEOLOGY OF THE AREA. 

The general geology of this part of the State is now fairly well 
known. Excepting a few small portions in the southeast, the whole 
area is covered with Tertiary sands, gravels, and clays. The lower- 
most formation is the Red Beds, which are exposed along a few of the 
bluff lines and in some of the lowest valleys in the extreme south- 
eastern part of the Meade quadrangle. Farther to the east, in Clark 
County and beyond, the Comanche overlies the Red Beds. This 
formation thins westward, however, so that only a few feet of the 
black Comanche shales is found anywhere within the Meade quad- 
rangle, and that in the extreme eastern part. It seems entirely to 
disappear westward, as no traces of it have been found. Above the 
Comanche lies the Dakota, a formation consisting largely of sand- 
stone. It is not exposed at the surface anywhere within this area, 
but has been reached frequently by wells, and is known to exist both 
to the east and to the west, so we are sure it is spread over the whole 
of the northern and central parts. The Dakota is followed by the 
Benton, which is largely a limestone formation consisting of beds of 
limestone alternating with black shale. It is found exposed at the 
surface in a few of the arroyos of Crooked Creek and along the Saw- 



4 

38° 



l 



101* 



Libera/^ 




TERTIARY AND PLEISTOCENE 
SEOLOGIC MAP OF AREA COVERED BY THIS REPORT. 



hawoeth.] GEOLOGY OP THE AREA. 27 

log in the northeastern part of the 1 >odge quadrangle, and it probably 
underlies the northern part of the Meade quadrangle. Covering the 
whole of these is the thin mantle of the Tertiary sands and gravels. 

RED BEDS. 

The Red Beds cover wide areas in south-central Kansas. They 
occupy the surface over ihe greater part of Clark, Comanche, ;in<l 
other counties to the east as far as Sumner County. Thej extend 
westward into Meade County, and are found atornear the surface 
over five or six townships in the extreme southeast corner of the 
Meade quadrangle. The broad valley around Englewood, which 
readies northwest almost to Cash City, has the Red Beds for its floor. 
The Tertiary sands and gravels are irregularly scattered over this val- 
ley, in some places as much as 50 or 100 feet thick, while elsewhere 
the Red Beds are exposed on the surface. They constitute the main 
mass of the hills and bluffs to the west and northwest of Englewood, 
but on account of the Tertiary capping of the hills and the Tertiary 
sands and gravels in the valley below, when represented on the map 
they appear as narrow strips winding back and forth through the 
course of the various lesser tributaries, unless, indeed, the thin cov- 
ering of the Tertiary in the valley should be neglected, and the whole 
represented as the Red Beds. They are exposed in the bluffs on both 
sides of the Cimarron at Englewood and on both sides of Crooked 
Creek as far up as Odee post-office, the farthest northwest exposure 
known covering a small area on the east bank of Crooked Creek about 
3 miles above Odee. 

The character of the upper surface of the Red Beds is interesting 
on account of the great irregularities which it presents. An exam- 
ination of section 1 of PL IV will show that the surface of the country 
drops rapidly southward from near Minneola, and that the surface of 
the Red Beds likewise drops, inasmuch as it is about parallel to the 
general surface of the country. Aside from this rapid inclination 
southward there are other local irregularities. In the Cimarron Val- 
ley, where the whole surface is covered by a layer of the soil and 
silt from 10 to 15 feet deep on an average, occasional places have been 
found in well drilling where great depressions exist. At one farm- 
house, on the land of Colonel Perry, a well was sunk to the unusual 
depth of 175 feet without reaching the Red Beds, while less than a 
half mile away they are exposed almost at the surface. Such irregu- 
larities are probably due to surface erosion in pre-Tertiary time. 

Another irregularity is present which is probably of a different kind. 
As just stated, the Red Beds constitute the main part of the bluffs 
on the eastern bank of Crooked Creek from Odee to its junction with 
the Cimarron, and on the left bank of the Cimarron a few miles below. 
On the west bank of Crooked Creek the Red Beds are not found. 
Neither are they found on the south side of the Cimarron until a point 
is reached near the mouth of Crooked Creek, or almost in line with 



28 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

the trend of the lower part of Crooked Creek, when suddenly they 
appear on the south side of the Cimarron in forms as massive and 
prominent as those on the north. This remarkable condition of the 
location of the Red Beds along Crooked Creek has already been 
referred to in these pages, and has been explained by assuming a 
fault line to exist along Crooked Creek, with the strata on the west- 
ern side dropped to an unknown distance, at least 100 or 150 feet. 

In constitution the Red Beds differ from anything else known in 
Kansas in a few important respects. Their bright color is their most 
striking characteristic. Wherever they are found they are readily 
recognized by this feature. No samples of them have yet been 
analyzed to determine their chemical composition, but it is evident 
that their brilliant color is due to the presence of large quantities of 
red oxide of iron intimately intermixed through the whole mass. 
They vary considerably from place to place, but seem to be composed 
entirely of clay and sand, very imperfectly bedded, but always colored 
with red iron oxide. In places far to the east we find beds of sand- 
stone sufficiently cemented to form a low-grade building stone. 
Elsewhere the sands are entirely wanting. Many samples of the red 
clay have been examined which apparently contained not even traces 
of the fine sand. 

G-ypsuni is another constituent, which assumes great prominence 
in the vicinity of Medicine Lodge and farther to the west. It seems 
to be well stratified in the vicinity of Medicine Lodge, forming heavy 
layers from 5 to 10 feet in thickness. These strata have a lateral 
extent of many miles, and have been important agents in the produc- 
tion of the peculiar and varied physiography for which portions of 
Barber and Comanche counties are noted. Gypsum has also been 
formed in many fissures, large or small, which cut the Red Beds in 
various places. These forms of gypsum are secondary in origin, and 
seem to have been deposited by infiltrating water probably long after 
the Red Beds themselves were lifted into dry land. 

Salt is likewise scattered irregularly through the Red Beds. It is 
leached out by the water and is deposited along the salt marshes so 
common in the Cimarron River Valley to the south of the State line. 
Probably the salt is irregularly disseminated throughout the material; 
possibly heavy deposits of rock salt may yet be found beneath the 
surface, although no positive indication of such has yet been observed. 
It is certain, however, that in some way, while the Red Beds were 
forming, conditions were favorable for the accumulation of salt to so 
great an extent that in the aggregate the amount deposited is very 
considerable. 

Thus far no fossils of any kind have been found anywhere in the 
Red Beds within this State. Those of Texas have yielded fossils of 
Permian character, and it is probable that they are of the same age 
as those of Kansas, although they have not yet been positively shown 



baworth.] RED BEDS. 29 

to be connected. Little true stratification can be rioted in the Red 
Beds in places where their principal component is day, but when 
san<l becomes more abundant, s«> as to form a sandstone, the bedding 
planes arc more Btrongly marked. In the southeastern part of the 
Meade quadrangle, immediately al thesummil of the Red Beds, is a 
tolerably well defined sandstone from :> to (i feet, in thickness, called 
the Basin sandstone, on account of its being so prominent in the walls 
around the great basin in (Mark County. At the southwesternmost 
exposure of the Red Beds al Odee this sandstone seems to be wanting, 
while the clay composing them is so entirely free from sand that no 
gril can be detected by the teeth. 

This absence of local stratification is almost Lost sight of when we 
contemplate the Red Beds as covering wide areas. They form a 
marked horizon between the Comanche or Dakota above and the 
black shales and bnft' limestone of the Permian below. Through all 
western Kansas they incline to the east or northeast or southeast, 
as is well shown by noting on the map their elevations at different 
places where found. Where exposed at Odee they have an elevation 
of nearly 2,400 feet, while in the bluffs near Englewood, in places 
where we know the measurements are made on the uneroded upper 
surface, their elevation is but little more than 2,100 feet, making a 
dip of the upper surface to the east of fully 250 feet in a distance of 
15 miles, or an average of near 17 feet to the mile. The same Red 
Beds were reached in a deep well at Santa Fe years ago at an eleva- 
tion considerably greater than where they are exposed at Odee, show- 
ing that as they extend westward their upper surface rises. 

The origin of the Red Beds is pretty well indicated by their char- 
acter. The large amount of iron oxide, of gypsum, and of salt which 
the}' contain, and the total absence of fossils, imply that they are the 
result of the accumulation of sediment in a concentrated ocean water. 
Many characteristics of the formations in central Kansas in the Upper 
Permian point to the existence of an inland ocean which was evapo- 
rating more rapidly than it was filling from surface drainage, thus 
producing a stronger and stronger brine. The large deposits of rock 
salt in what has heretofore been called the Upper Permian — the salt 
beds supplying the mines at Hutchinson, Lyons, and other places in 
the south-central part of Kansas — have probably been formed by the 
desiccation of an inland ocean. The dark-colored shale which is 
embedded with the salt in these places likewise implies that sufficient 
organic matter, either from sea or land, was accumulated with the 
earthy masses which constitute the shale to give them their black 
color. As time passed the accumulation of- organic matter from all 
sources was finally prevented. As a result, the surface oxidation of 
the iron compounds leached from the adjacent land was carried on to 
an extent sufficient to produce the red color in the sands and clays of 
the Red Beds. 



30 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

An important lesson may be gathered from these considerations by 
one studying the water problem in western Kansas. Should a well 
penetrate the Red Beds, their fine-grained, compact, argillaceous 
character makes it extremely doubtful whether water in any consid- 
erable quantity can be obtained from them; and still worse, should 
water be obtained it is almost certain to be so mineralized with salt 
and gypsum and other soluble products that it will be entirely 
unsuited for either domestic purposes or for irrigation. Therefore, 
should anyone when using the drill in the search for water anywhere 
in the southwestern part of the State penetrate the Red Beds, he 
should immediately discontinue boring, lest he spoil the character of 
the water he may have already obtained. 

DAKOTA. 

The Dakota formation underlies about three-fourths of the area 
covered by this report. Its position is well shown in the accompany- 
ing geologic sections (PI. IV, p. 42). From these it will be seen that it 
gradually thickens to the north and thins southward until it entirely 
disappears. The southeastern limits of the Dakota can not be out- 
lined in detail on account of the heavy mantle of Tertiary which 
conceals it from view in most places. 

In character the Dakota is largely a sandstone formation, so much 
so, indeed, that it is frequently spoken of as the Dakota sand- 
stone. Every deep well which has penetrated it in southwestern 
Kansas shows that shales are embedded with the sandstone. The 
extent of these shale deposits is not known, for nowhere can we find 
any exposure of the Dakota at the surface. Farther east, in other 
parts of Kansas where they come to the surface, it is seen that a 
considerable proportion of the thickness — probably more than half — 
is shale of some kind. In most places where exposed at the surface 
in Kansas the sandstone is colored brownish red by iron oxide, and in 
some places in this area the drill has brought up the same brownish- 
colored sand. Farther west in Kansas and Colorado the brown color 
is not so prominent. 

The Dakota formation has an unusually great extension. It reaches 
from the Dakotas southward into Texas, and probably beyond ; from 
central Kansas westward to the "Hogback," near the eastern foothills 
of the Rocky Mountains, and northwestward into Montana and Wyo- 
ming. As a sandstone it is characterized by great uniformity of tex- 
ture and a small amount of cementing material to bind the grains 
together. The latter property makes it an open and porous rock, so 
that it can serve as a great underground reservoir capable of hold- 
ing a high percentage of water or of allowing a relatively free trans- 
mission of water from one place to another within it. Westward from 
Kansas it is found sometimes at the surface, where it can absorb the 
rainfall, sometimes in contact with the Tertiary, so that the under- 



□~~~/-\. 



BAWORTH.] HKNTON FORMATION. 31 

ground water of thai formation mingles with its own, and sometimes 
buried beneath the Benton and higher Cretaceous formations. It 
seems to have an unbroken continuity from its exposure in Kansas 
westward almost to the mountains, throughout which distance it lias 
an average dip to the east of from 5 to 8 feel to the mile. It is, i here- 
fore, a most important formation to anyone studying the wafer prob- 
lem in Kansas, and will be recalled for a further discussion later in tins 
report. 

BENTON. 

Above the Dakota lies the Benton, a formation composed of alter- 
nating beds of limestone and black or dark-colored shale. The 
proportion of shale to limestone is probably about as 1 to 4 or 5. 
The limestone is generally a light buff in color, sometimes inclined to 
a bluish hue on unweathered surfaces. It is usually much softer 
than ordinary limestone, but fragments exposed at the surface show 
perceptible hardening. It always contains large quantities of fossil 
shells. 

The Benton formation is exposed at the surface in the northeastern 
part of the Dodge quadrangle along Sawlog Creek and some of its 
deeper tributaries. It is again exposed over small areas in places 
along the northern tributaries of Crooked Creek in the southern part 
of Gray County. Aside from these two limited areas it is entirely 
concealed from view by the overlying Tertiary sands and clays. How- 
ever, we know from the records of different wells and from its occur- 
rence elsewhere that it underlies the Tertiary formations over the 
whole of the northern part of this area, reaching southward to the 
banks of Crooked Creek, and probably farther on the western side. 

Many wells reached it at different places in township 29, in the 
southern part of Gray and Ford counties, some of which penetrated 
it 150 feet and more without passing through it, while others, farther 
east and south, proved that its thickness there was much less. The 
city well at Santa Fe is reported to have found but 13 feet of the 
Benton limestone. It would seem, therefore, that there is a consider- 
able thickening east from Santa Fe, as shown in the geologic section. 

Farther west, in the vicinity of Hartland, Kendall, Syracuse, and 
Coolidge, the Benton is exposed in the bluffs along the north bank of 
the Arkansas River, furnishing a limestone which is quarried at 
different places. There is little room to doubt, therefore, that the 
Benton underlies the whole of the area north from the southern limits 
along Crooked Creek to Santa Fe, as already described. 

Neither the Benton limestones nor shales are water bearing. Not 
a single well has yet been drilled in the shales which found water in 
them. The limestone is a fine-grained mass, capable of holding or 
transmitting but little water, while the shales are so close and com- 
pact that they are entirely incapable of permitting any consider- 
able quantity of water to pass through them. The Benton, therefore, 



32 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no.6. 

furnishes a floor impervious to the water of the overlying Ter- 
tiary sands, a floor preventing the Tertiary ground water from pass- 
ing downward and the water of the Dakota sandstone from passing 
upward. 

TERTIARY. 

The Tertiary formations in Kansas are composed principally of 
gravel, sand, black sand, clay, and silt, with a small amount of 
material usually called "volcanic ash." These materials are mixed 
together in an irregular manner, so that the same relation does not 
exist between them in different localities. The gravel consists of 
pebbles varying in size from 4 or 5 inches in diameter to the finest, 
grading into sand. They are composed principally of the ordinary 
rock-forming minerals, and seem to be fragments of granite, syenite, 
porphyry, andesite, rhyolite, basalt, and not infrequently of pure 
quartz. Their character leaves little room for doubt that they were 
carried here from the mountains to the west. 

The relative position of the gravel beds is variable. In some places 
they seem to be near the bottom of the Tertiary; elsewhere they are 
on the summit of the highest hills. A good example of the latter is 
found along Spring Creek, in Meade County, about 4 to 8 miles south- 
west of Meade Center. Here the so-called mortar beds — a mass of 
gravel and sand cemented with calcium carbonate — cap the top of 
the highest hills in the country. Some of them have the butte form 
so common where hills of erosion have a hard covering rock on top of 
a larger mass of soft material. 

The sand is composed of sand grains ranging in size from the ordinary 
coarse sand which grades into gravel down to the finest of sand. The 
grains are principally of ordinary quartz, but are usually intimately 
associated with feldspar particles, confirming the teachings of the 
gravel regarding their origin. The sand is about as well stratified as 
the gravels already mentioned. In places beds of sand are found 
well stratified, while elsewhere it is so intimately mixed with clay or 
gravel that the formation can hardly be called sand beds. 

Almost everywhere in the Tertiary are found small accumulations 
of black sand, which have been slightly segregated by rain water carry- 
ing away the finer materials and leaving these little grains behind. 
Originally they are intimately mixed with the clay and finer quartz 
sand. The little rivulets of water on the hillside carry away the 
lighter particles of clay and silt and let the black sand grains accu- 
mulate along the wagon tracks of the country roads and the eddies 
of the small ravines. These black grains are found to be composed 
entirely of black oxide of iron, principally magnetite, but partially 
dark hematite. Doubtless they were original constituents of the 
crystalline rocks of the mountains to the west. When the rocks 
were disintegrated by weathering and the debris was transported 
eastward by water, the iron oxide grains were carried along with the 



II WORTH ! 



TERTIARY. 33 



other material ;in<I lodged here and there wherever the current veloc- 
ities permitted. 

The clays and sills vary in character from place to place and at 
different depths. Occasionally almost pnre masses of clay are found, 
beds almost entirely free from admixtures of sand, clay with a high 
degree of plasticity and ineverj respecl resembling the puresi known, 
except thai ii contains sufficienl impurities to modify its color. Fre- 
quently such masses of clay seem to be colored with decaying organic 
mailer, as though during its accumulation such matter in one form 
or another was present, at least in limited quantities. Elsewhere the 
color of the clay seems to indicate the absence of organic mallei' of 
any kind. 

The stratigraphic property of the clay is interesting. In places ii 
exists in broad layers, apparently extending for miles in unbroken 
beds. Elsewhere it forms lenticular masses, oblong in horizontal 
dimensions and irregular in peripheral outlines. Sometimes it is 
interbedded with the heavy gravel and sand beds, and elsewhere 
seems to be relatively distinct from them. 

Along the Arkansas River Valley, near the bluffs north of Garden 
City, a heavy bed of clay nearly 100 feet thick extends up and down 
the valley for 4 or 5 miles. Its north-south diameter is usually about 
half a mile. South of the river 12 or 15 miles from Garden City is 
another locality in which occur irregularly shaped clay beds or clay 
bowlders, as they are locally called. During August, 189G, a well was 
drilled about three-fourths of a mile south of Atwater, in Meade 
County. It went to the surprising depth of 288 feet, passing through 
nothing but a light-blue plastic clay almost the entire depth., Othejr 
wells on every side of this one, from 1 to 2 miles away, found the 
usual amount of water-bearing sand at from 20 to 40 feet. Such illus- 
trations could be multiplied until the whole of the Tertiary of Kansas 
was covered. Everywhere such irregularities exist. Few wells have 
been made which did not pass through both sand and clay. Even in 
the sand hills south of the Arkansas River the few wells dug or bored 
invariably found clay. The State well in the sand hills just south of 
Cimarron may be taken as an example. At a depth of 23+ feet a bed 
of remarkably compact plastic, clay was reached, about 5 feet in 
thickness. 

In man}* places in western Kansas and elsewhere on the plains a 
small amount of a fine-grained matter is found, which is generally 
called volcanic ash. A few deposits of the same material have been 
found in this territory. The best exposure known is along a tribu- 
tary to Crooked Creek, about three-fourths of a mile west of Meade 
Center, although other lesser deposits are known in Meade County 
and elsewhere. 

Over a large portion of the whole Tertiary area of the plains the sur- 
face is covered with a fine-grained soil which has so high a percentage 
irr 6 3 



34 UNDERGROUND WATERS OP SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

of clay within it that it has a relative high plasticity and other prop- 
erties that have given it the name "Plains marl." It covers more 
than half of the surface, but by no means all of it. Neither is it con- 
fined to the surface, for often the same kind of material is found inter- 
bedded between layers of other materials. It is probably composed 
of the finest silt and clay particles which migrated eastward during 
Tertiary time and were lodged here and there wherever the conditions 
of water velocity dictated. In recent times, also, the winds have 
exerted a sorting action on the surface materials, which has helped to 
make the Plains marl more characteristic. The strong winds pick up 
the finest dust and carry it for miles and deposit it wherever a suitable 
lodging can be secured. This not only concentrates the finest mate- 
rials together by movement, but also leaves the coarser soils and sands 
behind, so that the same process produces sand dunes and sandy soils 
which are often mere residual products after the finer silt has been 
blown away. 

The structural relations of the different Tertiary materials are far 
from regular. It is doubtful if there can be any definite stratigraphic 
relations established covering a considerable scope of country. The 
gravel and sand are frequently cemented into a moderately firm rock 
by the presence of a variable amount of a calcium carbonate cement. 
This cement is sometimes found in the clay as well, but it is most 
abundant in the sand and gravel, producing a sort of sandstone or 
conglomerate to which the name "mortar beds " or "grit" is generally 
applied. Some of the varieties of this are the so-called "natural 
mortar," which is extensively used throughout the West for making 
a, mortar to plaster with and to roof houses. These mortar-bed hori- 
zons are prominent features in many places and constitute the only 
hard and resisting strata in the Tertiarj^. The idea so frequently 
expressed, that they are located near the base of the Tertiary, is cor- 
rect for some localities, but incorrect for others. 

Along the Buckner, in the southwestern part of Hodgeman County, 
the sand and gravel are as firmly cemented as at any place known 
to the writer. Here they form a tolerably solid rock which lies at the 
top of the bluffs on the south side of the Buckner. They are in beds 
from 10 to 20 feet thick, varying much more than ordinary sandstone 
beds do. Below them in this locality the bluffs are composed of a 
looser and finer material. At other places along the Sawlog, near 
by, the mortar beds are found near the bottom of the Tertiary, and 
not infrequently resting immediately upon the Benton limestone. 

The north bluff line of the Arkansas River from some distance 
below Dodge westward almost to Garden is protected by a well-devel- 
oped mass of mortar beds. Throughout the most of this distance 
three distinct layers of mortar beds can be traced, while in other 
places four or more may be found. They are composed of cemented 
sand and coarse gravel, and are separated from each other by beds 
of clay and fine sand T The weathering processes wear away the soft 



haworth.] TERTIARY. 35 

clay beds more rapidly than the mortar beds, producing a series of 
narrow terraces along the bluffs similar to those generally observed 
in places where the Limestones and shales alternate with each oilier, 
as so frequently occurs in the eastern pari of the Stale. 

South of the Arkansas River but little of the mortar-bed material 
IS to be seen until the vicinity of Crooked Creek and the Cimarron is 
reached. Here we have the same lack of regularity so noticeable 
elsewhere. The most pronounced form of the mortar beds is often 
found at the very summit of the bluffs, but by no means always so. 
In other places they occur midway up the bluff, and not infrequently 
near the base. The bluffs of Crooked Creek below Meade are good 
examples of this. On the eastern side of the creek they are very 
rugged, with frequent instances of mortar beds being well developed, 
but by no means do they form a constant stratum continuously along 
the bluff. On the western side the bluff line is not so abrupt, and 
consequently there is not so good an opportunity for observing the 
mortar-bed masses. To the southwest of Meade, along the upper 
portion of Spring Creek, however, some of the hilltops are very dis- 
tinct, and the erosive forms are significant of hills with a protecting 
cap of hard material covering softer materials. These can well be 
studied from the Meade topographic sheet. A few of these hills are 
particularly noteworthy. On the north bluff of Spring Creek, about 
4 miles above Crooked Creek Valley, the mortar beds are found lying 
at the summit of the hill. The sandy clay underneath is worn away, 
so that quite frequently the mortar-bed rock projects several feet, 
forming an overhanging cliff. South of Spring Creek a similar con- 
dition obtains. Hill point after hill point stands out in the landscape 
as a prominent feature, on the top of which a horizontal mass of 
mortar-bed rock serves as a protection to the soft and easily eroded 
sandy clays beneath. 

Along the Cimarron River from some distance above Arkalon to 
where the river encounters the Red Beds near Englewood its valley 
is cut downward into the broad plain to a depth of nearly 200 feet. 
As one stands on a prominent point on either side of the valley and 
looks up and down the stream, it is easy to see the line of light-colored 
mortar beds lying almost at the summit of the bluffs, with the darker 
colored shales and sands beneath. A more careful examination 
shows that for many miles along the stream relatively firm rock 
covers the topmost part of the bluffs, and it is largely to this that 
the precipitous character so pronounced on either side of the river 
around Arkalon is due. Beneath the mortar beds are found masses of 
sandy clay, which constitutes the main mass of the bluffs. At other 
places, particularly along some of the tributaries of Spring Creek near 
Meade Center, the mortar beds in a well-developed form are found 
on low ground more than 100 feet below those capping the hills a 
mile or so away, with no connection between them. 

During the last two years the Kansas State Board of Irrigation has 



36 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

sunk twenty wells in western Kansas, the greater portion of which 
are confined to the Tertiary. One of the provisions in the contract for 
the drilling of each well was that a carefully selected and accurately 
labeled suite of samples should be preserved and delivered to the 
board, such samples to be taken with sufficient frequency to accu- 
rately represent the character of the material passed through. These 
samples from the different wells were turned over to the writer by 
the Board of Irrigation and have been carefully examined. This is 
the first time it has been possible to examine the Tertiary materials at 
any considerable depth below the surface, except where they are found 
along the bluff lines of the various drainage streams. They are there- 
fore of more than ordinary importance, and are worthy of notice, in 
this connection. 

It was found that little relation existed between the distance from 
the surface and the size of the gravel. Gravel beds of a considerable 
degree of coarseness were frequently found near the surface, and the 
finest sand and clay and silt were not infrequently found near the 
base of the Tertiary. There was such an irregularity of position shown 
with reference to any one material, and such a lack of definite relation 
between the different kinds of material, that it seemed as though but 
little if any dependence could be placed in any older classification. 

In studying the physical properties of the Tertiary it is necessary 
to emphasize the statement that the so-called mortar beds are simply 
the sand and gravel and clay material? cemented usually with calca- 
reous cement. The real stratigraphic conditions probably do not 
depend upon the presence or absence of cementing material, but 
rather upon the continuity of beds of like material. A stratum of 
gravel which is not cemented should be considered as important as 
though it had chanced to have its individual constituents held 
together by a cementing material of some kind. Yet in our study of 
the subject we are usually inclined to erroneously regard the beds 
which are cemented into a firm rock as more important than softer 
materials. It has been suggested by the writer that the formation of 
the cementing material has occurred since the deposition of the beds, 
and that it represents a process of weathering and desiccation still in 
progress. The ordinary weathering agents produce calcium carbonate 
near the surface, which is changed to the acid carbonate by rain 
water containing carbon dioxide washed from the atmosphere. It is 
then dissolved and carried downward until the dryness of the ground 
absorbs the moisture, precipitating thereby the neutral carbonate in 
whatever position it chances to be. As the beds of gravel and coarse 
sand more freely permit the passage of water through them than dp 
other materials, naturally there would be a greater deposition of 
calcium carbonate in such beds. 

It is doubtful if there can be any regularity discovered between the 
beds of the different kinds of Tertiary material in western Kansas. 
The mortar beds occur at all positions from the base to the summit, 



iiAwou.ii ] WATER SUPPLY OF THE AREA. 37 

as do also the Bands and the days. Il has Im'cii found impossible 
to trace a bed of any one material very far in any direct ion. The 
records of the State wells add to this difficulty rather than lessen it. 
Neither does the assistance of paleontology lessen the difficulty, but 
rather increases it. In Phillips County the mortal- beds contain 
skeletons of the rhinoceros and other animals, indicating that they 
should be correlated with the Loup Fork beds of Nebraska, ami that 
they are about the oldest Tertiary beds in Kansas. To the southwest, 
in Meade County, a mass of conglomerate, which is as typical a mortar 
bed as can be found, is rich in fossil horses, llamas, elephants, etc., 
which paleontologists class as Pleistocene fossils. We therefore have 
the mortar beds with Loup Fork fossils at one place and with Pleis- 
tocene fossils in another, not only showing - a lack of strati graphic 
continuity, but showing- that, after all, the so-called Tertiary of the 
State may be part Tertiary and part Pleistocene. 

WATER SUPPLY OF THE AREA. 

In the discussion of waters on the Great Plains it is well to bear in 
mind the different conditions under which water exists and the differ- 
ent classes into which the ground waters may be divided with refer- 
ence to the geologic character of the materials in which they are 
found. Geologically we have two great classes of ground waters. 
One exists in the Dakota sandstones. It probably has a slow move- 
ment eastward, has principally been gathered from the rains falling 
in the eastern part of Colorado and farther to the north over areas 
wdiere the sandstone is exposed at the surface, and in its eastward 
movement passes underneath the Benton, Niobrara, and other supe- 
rior Cretaceous formations, so that in most places it exists under a 
pressure sufficient to cause it to rise an appreciable distance above 
the level at which it is found by the drill, giving artesian w r ells, or 
w r ells decidedly artesian in character. 

The other water is that which is commonly known as ground water, 
sheet water, or underflow, as these expressions are understood by the 
people of western Kansas. It is confined to the Tertiary sands and 
gravels. It lies immediately above the impervious Cretaceous or Red 
Bed floor, and is sufficient in quantity to more than saturate the mate- 
rials in which it exists for a distance above the floor varying from 5 
to more than 100 feet. Throughout the greater part of the plains 
area, therefore, these two classes of water are separated from each 
other by all of the Benton and higher Cretaceous deposits. In rare 
cases, however, the Tertiary rests immediately on the Dakota sands, 
permitting the Tertiary water and the Dakota water to commingle. 
Could we exhaust the supply of either one to an appreciable degree, 
the other would doubtless be drawn upon and a movement would be 
set up from one into the other. Still, for convenience of discussion 
and clear presentation of the water conditions, it is desirable that the 
two classes should be discussed separately. 



38 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6, 

DAKOTA SANDSTONE WATER. 

The Dakota formation consists largely of beds of sandstone the 
grains of which are generally but poorly cemented together, leaving 
spaces between them which may well serve as receptacles for water. 
This sandstone, as before stated, underlies the greater part of the 
plains area from the British possessions on the north to Texas on 
the south. Throughout this entire distance it extends westward to 
the mountainous area, lapping upon the foothills along the eastern 
slope of the Rocky Mountains or capping the ridge generally known 
as the "Hogback," lying just east of the mountains in Colorado, as 
has been so well shown by Gilbert in his recent article on water con- 
ditions in eastern Colorado. 1 In this vast area are many localities 
where the Dakota is exposed to the surface, so that it can gather 
water from the rains and melting snows and occasionally from rivers 
which pass over it. The water which is absorbed passes eastward or 
southeastward or northeastward, the direction depending upon the 
inclination of its strata in different localities. 

This great geologic formation is a continuous underground sheet 
for thousands of miles in extent, and has been imbibing water from 
the rains and snows perhaps for thousands of centuries. It has thus 
become a great reservoir filled with water, the leaks from which are 
known in the form of springs and seeps along its eastern borders in 
many places where it is brought to the surface, and also along the 
banks of streams which have cut their channels downward until the 
Dakota has been reached. 

In a general way it may safely be said that all that is necessary io 
obtain water on the Great Plains is to penetrate to the Dakota sand- 
stone. This proposition, although true in a general way, may not be 
verified in every instance. It is reasonable to suppose that a rock 
mass covering so wide an area is not perfectly uniform throughout. 
Here and there may be areas where the cementing material is more 
abundant than ordinary, or where the grains of sand are finer, or 
where the sand beds in their original form had silt and clay inter- 
mingled to a sufficient extent to produce a relatively impervious mass. 
We know, in part, that such conditions obtain at irregular intervals, 
and that consequently a drill hole made in such a place will yield but 
little if any water; not because the great Dakota beds were not 
reached, but because they were reached at a place where the open 
spaces between the sand grains had been filled with clay or mud or 
cementing material so that water could scarcely flow through. 

Experience in drilling for water in the Dakotas, in Nebraska, in 
Colorado, and in Kansas abundantly verifies the statement just made, 
that in a general way one may confidently expect to obtain water in 
large supplies wherever the drill penetrates the Dakota sandstone. 

1 The underground water of the Arkansas Valley in eastern Colorado, by Grove Karl Gilbert; 
Seventeenth Ann. Eept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Part II, 1896, p. 582. 



hah out... I DAKOTA SANDSTONE WATER. 39 

CHARACTER ANI> OCCURRENCE OP DAKOTA WATER. 

The character of the water obtained from.the Dakota sandstone is 
variable. Underground water is pure or is mineralized, according to 
its opporl unit Les for dissolving soluble mineral salts. Could water be 
confined continuously in a perfectly pure mass of sand or sandstone 

which bad no soluble materials within it, and into which no soluble 
salts could be taken by infiltrating waters, its character would alw ,iys 
remain pure. But nature rarely accumulates a mass of sand without 
having at least 1 races of soluble materials along with it. Few terranes 
are known anywhere in the world which can permit waters to perco- 
late through them for hundreds of miles without giving up mineral 
matter to the water somewhere throughout the course. It is so with 
the Dakota sandstone, yet not universally so. For some reason which 
has not been determined, water which is lifted from the Dakota at one 
place may have a greater or less amount of dissolved mineral salts 
than water obtained from the same sandstone 50 or 100 miles away. 

The natural processes by wliich the impurities are gathered from 
the rocks by the water are such that it is exceedingly difficult for one 
to give an approximate statement regarding the character of the water 
that may be found at any locality, unless one can be guided by the 
water winch has already been found near by. This, likewise, is sub- 
stantiated by our limited experience in drawing water from the Dakota 
sandstone. The wells at Rocky Ford, La Junta, and other places in 
Colorado are all mineralized to a similar extent. The springs which 
burst forth from the banks of the creeks and rivers near by are like- 
wise mineralized. 

In Kansas the few wells which have been drilled in the Dakota 
sandstone have produced different degrees of mineralized water, dif- 
fering materially in composition from one another and from many of 
the wells of Colorado and Dakota. The artesian water at Coolidge, 
which is a Dakota sandstone water, is relatively fresh, carrying little 
more than 24 grains of solution to the gallon. It has but little odor 
of hydrogen sulphide, and is in every way a desirable water for all 
domestic purposes. Farther north, in the vicinity of Oakley, a well 
reached the same horizon and likewise obtained water, but this was 
so heavily charged with common salt and other soluble minerals that 
it was practically worthless. An artesian well east of Oakley, in 
Saline County, drawing large quantities of water from the same 
Dakota sandstone, produces a water which is somewhat different from 
either of those, but which is so salty that it is of but little value for 
domestic purposes or for irrigation. 

In the vicinity of Ness City, Larned, and other points near the 
Arkansas Valley, the few wells which have reached the Dakota have 
uniformly obtained water of a high degree of purity, well suited for 
domestic purposes. These examples are sufficient to show the varied 
character of the water obtained from the Dakota sandstone; in some 



40 



UNDEEGEOUND WATEES OF SOUTHWESTEEN KANSAS. 



[no. 6. 



places the water is of good character, while in others it is highly min- 
eralized. 

Thus far but few wells in the special area discussed in this report 
have penetrated the Dakota sandstone. Not one is known to the 
writer to have done so north of the middle of the area, and hut few 
to the south. In northeastern Meade County and the southern part 
of Ford County, four or five different wells are known to have passed 
through the Benton and reached the Dakota. In every instance the 
water obtained seems to be very abundant, rises to a height of from 




f fLfr 




Fig. 2. 



-Reservoir and windmill pumping water from Dakota sandstone, about 18 miles south 
of Dodge, Kansas. 



50 to 150 feet above where if was first reached, and is of so high a 
degree of purity that no mineral properties whatever are noticeable 
to the taste. At Santa Fe, likewise, the city well passed through the 
Benton into the Dakota and obtained a good supply of water of as 
high a degree of purity as anyone could desire for domestic purposes. 
These Dakota waters have not been analyzed, largely because their 
purity is so apparent that analysis has seemed unnecessary. 

By referring to the accompanying map (PI. I) it will be noticed that 
the southern limit of the Dakota formation passes from a line near 
Minneola, on the east, to a point a few miles south of Santa Fe, on the 



iiAwoiiTii J ARTESIAN PROPERTIES OF DAKOTA WATER. 41 

west. Ii may confidently be stated that fche Dakota, sandstone ex- 
tends northward from this boundary under the whole of the area, 
and that it is water bearing throughout its whole extent. There- 
fore, a well put down to a depth sullieient to reach the Dakota sand- 
stone will he supplied with abundance of water. 

These predictions are based upon the well-known extension of the 

Dakota sandstone and its property as a water-bearing formation. The 

depth to which wells at different places will have l<> be carried to reach 
the waters of the Dakota sandstone can only be given approximately. 
By referring to the different geologic sections on PL IV it will be seen 
that the Dakota deposits to the north lie at a similar angle. ( )ur knowl- 
edge of this subject is only fragmentary. A deep well at Garden is 
repented to have reached the Dakota at a depth of 401 feet. This 
information is all that was available from that part of the area, and 
section 3 was based upon it. 

North of Dodge the Benton is exposed on the surface. Its thickness 
at this place is not known, but different wells have passed into it from 
1()0 to 200 feet. Farther south, in southwestern Ford County, the 
Benton is known to be at least 150 feet thick, while farther to the 
northeast, where it is exposed at the surface, it is estimated to have a 
thickness of about 400 feet. From these data it was estimated that 
its thickness at the northeast corner of the Dodge quadrangle is about 
400 feet, and section 1 was drawn accordingly. 

The areas lying between sections 1 and 2 and 2 and 3 will have the 
Dakota at about the same distance from the surface. If, therefore, 
anyone should desire to estimate the depth he would have to go at 
any particular place to reach the Dakota sandstone, he could obtain 
an approximate idea by referring to these sections. 

The representations here made should be regarded as only approxi- 
mations, but the best that can be made with our present knowledge. 
Should a few wells be drilled north of the Arkansas deep enough to 
reach the Dakota sandstone, corrections could then be made wdiich 
would make it possible to estimate the distance below the surface at 
which the Dakota would be reached over the whole area. 

ARTESIAN PROPERTIES OF THE DAKOTA WATER. 

The Dakota water in all places has artesian properties to a greater 
or less degree; that is, the water rises through a varying number of 
feet from the level at which it is found. At Coolidge different wells, 
when properly cased, gave a constant flow of from 40 to 50 gallons per 
minute from a 3-inch well. Farther east, at Syracuse, like wells have 
reached the Dakota and have produced water, but not one has yet 
been properly cased to determine whether or not the water would rise 
to the surface. 

Northward, in the vicinity of Ness, where the surface elevation is 
slightly less than the uplands in the vicinity of Dodge, the waters 



42 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

from the Dakota sandstone rise to within from 35 to 75 feet of the 
surface. It is probable that Avells of this character could be sunk in 
the area under discussion in which the water would rise nearly to the 
surface, and possibly in some instances an artesian flow might be 
obtained. Yet one should not depend too much upon obtaining an 
actual flow, for it is doubtful if such would be obtained anywhere 
except in the lowest ground. There can be no good reason, however, 
for doubting that the water would rise to a point rarely more than 100 
feet below the surface, and in many instances much higher than this. 
The constant drainage along the eastern borders of the Dakota 
decreases the water pressure to so great an extent that the height to 
which it will rise is materially reduced in the Dakotas 1 and Minnesota. 
The decrease in pressure is frequently as great as 4 feet to the mile 
near the eastern border of Dakota, a decrease which is attributed 
largely to leakage. No observation has been made in Kansas to deter- 
mine the rate of decrease in pressure. Such, in fact, could not be 
done to any satisfactoiy degree without a larger number of wells upon 
which observations could be made. 

HOW TO FIND THE DAKOTA SANDSTONE. 

Many inquiries have been made by citizens in various parts of 
Kansas regarding the means by which they could determine how to 
find the Dakota by boring. As already stated, the whole of the area 
covered by this report north of the south limit of the Dakota is under- 
lain by the Dakota sandstone. When one drills a well expecting to 
reach this formation, the Tertiary sands, gravels, and clays will prob- 
ably first be passed through, and whether or not the Tertiary water is 
found will depend upon a number of conditions which obtain in the 
vicinity of the well. Below the Tertiary, limestone and black or 
dark shale alternating will probably be found. The shale is the 
material commonly called ' ' soapstone " by the most of the well drillers. 
In all such cases, as long as the drill is in the shale or limestone the 
driller should keep on going deeper. Finally the drill will pass 
through the Benton shales and limestones and enter the Dakota 
sandstones and clays. 

If for any cause or combination of circumstances the desired supply 
of water is not obtained, he should go deeper, for the Dakota sand- 
stone exists in two or more different layers, separated from each other 
by clay or shale of varied characters. The only condition which should 
cause him to stop drilling before the desired amount of water is 
obtained is that the drill has reached the Red Beds exposed on the sur- 
face in the southeast part of Meade County. We do not know how 
far north these Red Beds extend, but probably they reach far beyond 
the limits of the territory to which this report pertains. They can be 

1 Preliminary report on artesian waters of a portion of the Dakotas, by N. H. Darton: Seven- 
teenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, Part II, 1896, p. 666. 




TERTIARY AND PLEISTOCENE 



BENTON 

GEOLOGIC SECTIONS OF THE AREA DISCUSSED IN THIS REPORT. 



HAWOKTH.1 TERTIARY GROUND WATER. 43 

recognized wnen reached by the drill in a number of ways. They arc 
generally free from sand, but not always; they are usually slightly 
sally or in sonic other way mineralized, so that t hey may be recognized 
by the taste; and they have mixed through them small masses of 
gypsum, a property rarely observed in the Dakota clays or shales 
lying bel ween the 1 >akota sandstones. As soon as t he driller becomes 
satisfied that hisdrill has entered the Red Beds, operations should be 
stopped immediately. There is no evidence favoring a hope that the 
Red Beds will produce water in large quantities, while there are many 
reasons for believing that the small amount which maybe obtained 
from them will bo so highly mineralized as to be entirely unfit for use 
of any kind. 

TERTIARY GROUND WATER. 

Under this heading are placed the waters drawn from the Tertiary 
formations. They include all water that may be found in Tertiary 
sands, gravels, and clays; that is, all available water lying above the 
uppermost Cretaceous formation. It is the water which is generally 
known in the West by the terms " underflow" or "sheet water," names 
which reflect the popular idea regarding the extent and character of 
the ground water of the plains. The water is found in greatest 
abundance just above the Red Beds or the Cretaceous floor. The 
lower portion of the Tertiary sand and gravel is more than saturated, 
and available water results. The thickness of the water-bearing beds 
is variable, sometimes being more than 100 feet, and elsewhere being 
less than 5, but always the water-bearing horizon rests on the impervi- 
ous Cretaceous or Red Bed floor, or on a like impervious floor of clay. 

Almost all the area comprised in this report is underlain by large 
quantities of water. In the Arkansas Valley and the low grounds 
along other streams the water is usually found at depths varying from 
5 to 12 feet. On the higher uplands its distance below r the surface is 
greater, in some places even reaching 200 feet, and possibly more. 
The water is everywhere present except in a few small areas, such as 
the area in the northeast corner of the Dodge quadrangle, where the 
Benton limestone is exposed at the surface, and similar areas in the 
southeast part of the Meade quadrangle, where the Red Beds come 
close to the surface. Elsewhere, speaking in a general way, a well 
put down at random on any quarter section will produce water if car- 
ried to a sufficient depth. 

DEPTH OP TERTIARY GROUND WATER. 

An [attempt has been made to represent graphically the distance 
below the surface at which water may be found for the whole area. 
Extensive examinations were made during the past summer, which 
included an investigation of almost every well outside the Arkansas 
Valley. Mapping the location of the wells and noting the depth from 
which water had to be pumped, it w r as possible to draw a series of 



44 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

lines on the surface of the map which may be called the water con- 
tours. These lines divide the area into a number of little groups, 
so that those similarly marked have water at about the same depth, 
somewhat as the contour lines on an ordinary topographic map repre- 
sent areas of equal altitude. The results obtained by this method of 
representation are shown on the accompanying map (PL V), on which 
the different areas represented by the same pattern have the water 
lying at about the same depth from the surface. It may be said that 
too much confidence should not be placed in this map. When the 
long distances between wells on the uplands are considered, and the 
relatively large proportion of the uplands over which wells have not 
been drilled, it will be seen that it is necessarily impossible to construct 
a map of this kind which will be entirely accurate. Yet it is believed 
that the one here presented has a fair degree of accuracy, and that 
confidence may be placed in it to a moderate extent. 

By an examination of the map it will be seen that along the prin- 
cipal river valleys the water may be found at a depth of 50 feet or 
less. Over the whole Arkansas Valley, aggregating 200 square miles 
or more, the depth varies from 5 to 12 feet. Likewise in the Meade 
artesian valley, along Crooked Creek, the surface water rarely exceeds 
12 or 15 feet in depth. The valley of the Cimarron to the southwest 
is another place, where water can generally be obtained at a depth of 
less than 20 feet. An area to the north and northwest of Dodge, along 
the Sawlog and Buckner, covering many square miles, likewise has 
the water less than 50 feet in depth, while still another area in the 
southeast corner of Meade County, an area equal to 75 square miles 
or more, has water, when found at all, generally at a depth of less 
than 50 feet. This area, however, is one of the most uncertain ones 
in the county. The Red Beds are near the surface, with an irregular 
covering of sand and gravel. Sometimes the well will pass into the 
Red Beds without obtaining water in any considerable quantity, while 
perhaps less than a mile away water is found in apparently inexhaust- 
ible supplies. This variation of conditions seems to be due to the 
irregularity of the surface of the Red Beds, a condition which can not 
be foretold and which can be determined only by the extended use of 
spade or drill. 

The areas over which water may be found at depths varying from 
50 to 100 feet are greater in the aggregate than those just given. 
Nearly the whole of the country lying to the north of the Arkansas 
River comes under this division, although the high bluff lines along the 
Arkansas are not included. South of the river a strip reaches from 
west of Garden eastward entirely to the east side of the Dodge quad- 
rangle. There is another area of like depth through the high divide 
between the Arkansas and Crooked Creek, covering the main portions 
of the south part of Ford and Gray counties and reaching far into 
Meade County on each side of the artesian valley and along Crooked 




MAP GIVING DEPTH OF GROUND WATER. 



ha worth. 1 LEVEL OF TERTIARY GROUND WATER. 45 

Creek, with irregular areas in the east-central part of Meade County 
and lesser outlying areas elsewhere. 

The next contour, with a depth varying from (00 to L50 feet, covers 
,-i like area and includes a portion of the high divide from Dodge west- 
ward almosl to Garden, a portion of the divide between the Arkan- 
sas River and Crooked Creek, and a large portion of the high uplands 
in Meade County and a considerable part of Haskell and Finney 
counties. The area covered by the next contour interval, that of 
from L50 to 200 feet, covers nearly all the remaining territory. North 
of the Arkansas River it is represented by a small, irregular strip near 
Dodge. Southward it covers the remainder of the high divide between 
the Arkansas River and Crooked Creek and a small portion of Meade 
County to the southeast of Meade. It likewise occupies a large ter- 
ritory north of the Cimarron River, in the vicinity of West Plains and 
Springfield, reaching northward to beyond Santa Fe, thus occupying 
nearly all the broad, apparently level plain from Santa Fe to Spring- 
field. The contour interval greater than 200 feet is represented in 
but few places in this area so far as we know. A few miles to the 
north of West Plains wells were found which were more than 200 feet 
deep, likewise in the southwestern part of Seward County and in an 
area northwest of Santa Fe. Could a larger number of wells be drilled 
over the high plains of Seward and Haskell counties, it is quite possi- 
ble that this contour interval would be extended. 

LEVEL OP TERTIARY GROUND WATER. 

The water contours cross and recross the elevation contours in an 
irregular manner. In one respect they are independent of the eleva- 
tion contours, and yet over small areas they bear a close relation to 
them. Thus on a given farm a well in the valley will have to be 
sunk a much less depth than on the uplands near by, and the differ- 
ence in depth can usually be closely estimated by obtaining the dif- 
ference in the surface elevation. For example, water in the Arkansas 
Valley at Cimarron can be had at a depth of from 6 to 12 feet, while 
2 miles to the north, on the uplands, 140 feet higher, a well would 
probably have to be sunk 150 feet before water could be reached. 
We may cover much wider areas and still find the same condition 
obtaining in a general way. If a closer scrutiny of the conditions 
over wide areas be made, it is found that the upper surface of the 
available water is by no means on a level, but that it has marked 
variations of elevation which in a general way agree or correspond 
with the upper surface of the Cretaceous formations which lie buried 
beneath the Tertiary sands. 

These conditions are well illustrated by the six different geologic 
sections crossing the area to be described. By reference to them (PI. 
IV) it will be seen that the water level in the various wells is almost 
independent of the distance below the surface of the ground, but that 



46 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

it is largely dependent upon the distance above the impervious floor. 
In directions along which the floor lies in a horizontal position the 
water level is likewise approximately horizontal. In directions along 
which the floor varies greatly in elevation the water level likewise 
varies. Thus in section 1, passing north and south along the one 
hundredth meridian through Dodge, the same as in sections 2 and 
3 having a north-south direction, the water level is approximately 
horizontal wherever the Cretaceous floor is horizontal. Along the 
southern portion of section 1, where the upper surface of the Red 
Beds dips so rapidly to the south, the water level correspondingly 
falls at the same rate. 

In the Cimarron Valley, in the vicinity of Englewood, the water is 
found at less than 2,000 feet above the sea level, while 25 miles to 
the north it is found at nearly the same depth below the surface, 
which makes it fully 2,400 feet above sea level, or 400 feet higher. 
We therefore have an average inclination of the water level south- 
ward along the one hundredth meridian, from Minneola toward 
Englewood, of more than 25 feet to the mile. In east and west direc- 
tions we likewise find perceptible inclinations of the water level. 
Section 5, drawn east and west through Santa Fe, shows a fall of 
fully 200 feet in 56 miles, while section 6, passing east and west near 
Garden, shows a decline of the water surface of fulty 300 feet in the 
same distance, or a fall of over 5 feet to the mile. 

The same conditions are found to obtain over areas much wider 
even than that covered by this report. The water in the Arkansas 
River Valley at Coolidge is no farther from the surface than at Dodge, 
although the latter is about 860 feet lower, or at Great Bend or Hutch- 
inson or Wichita or Arkansas City, although all the latter points are 
much lower than Coolidge. Similarly, the water of the high uplands 
anywhere in western Kansas, in general, is found at about the same 
depth, whether near the western side of the State or near the eastern 
limit of the Tertiary, although the difference in elevation may be a 
thousand feet or more. It is, therefore, correct, in a general way, to 
speak of the upper surface of the ground water as being approximately 
level when limited distances are considered, or when a distance extend- 
ing in a direction which chances to cover a level surface of the under- 
ground Cretaceous floor is considered. The elevation contours are 
consequently of great value in determining the depth to which a well 
would have to be carried to obtain water if located near a well of 
known depth. But if the prospective well is to be drilled 5, 10, or 20 
miles from any known well the elevation contours would be of but 
little if any value. 

The existence of such vast quantities of water in an arid and semi- 
arid portion of the Great Plains appears very remarkable. Could the 
thousands of pioneers who traversed these regions prior to the opera- 
tion of the transcontinental railway lines have known that the purest 



HAwoHTii .1 LEVEL OF TERTIARY GROUND WATER. 47 

and sweetest water existed in such unlimited quantities nl so shorl a 
distance beneath the surface, how many of them in a lew hours' time 
with spade and shove] would have supplied water to slake the thirst 
and maintain the Life of man and beast, throughoul the course of 
those perilous journeys! Bu1 the idea of such quantities of water 
existing within easy reach rarely entered, their minds. It look years 
of occupancy of the Greal Plains by thousands of ci1 izens for such an 
idea to become well established. Even now, after almost ten years of 
active agitation of the subject, few people outside the immediate 
localities where such water exists realize the extent to which water 
may be found. 

As already explained, the whole country is underlain by a mass 
of impervious material, the Cretaceous formations, or the Red Ueds. 
Tins impervious floor prevents the downward movement of waterwhich 
may be above it. The Tertiary sands, gravels, and clays furnish a 
thin and moderately even covering on the top of this floor, a loose, 
porous covering, well adapted for absorbing all precipitation that may 
fall upon it and well suited for the transportation through it of water 
from one part of the country to another. It is not necessary, there- 
fore, that the water under any particular area should have fallen as 
rain or snow immediately upon that area, but it may have been precip- 
itated tens or hundreds of miles away and traveled by the slow move- 
ment now known to exist. Nor is it necessary to assume that all this 
water must have been precipitated within recent times. There is no 
reason for believing that climatic conditions on the Great Plains have 
sensibly varied for thousands of years. The rains throughout this 
long period have been falling as at present, and such portions of them 
as were not carried away by the run-off or by surface evaporation or 
held as soil moisture have sunk to the floor and there await the drill 
and the pump. As the water accumulates above the impervious floor 
it first moistens the sand to the degree of saturation, and any excess 
is held under such conditions that it can be drawn off by proper 
methods. 

As the downward percolation continues, the level at which available 
water exists gradually rises, so that in the true sense of the term we 
may speak of the ground being saturated upward, meaning thereby 
that in the natural order of the events of accumulation the level at 
which the ground water first became sufficiently abundant to yield a 
supply was immediately above the impervious floor, and that, with the 
increase of water from above and from the sides, this level of avail- 
able water gradually rose in a manner similar to the way the upper 
surface of water in a vessel rises when water is added. The upward 
saturation of the sands and gravels, therefore, is dependent upon the 
accumulation of a larger supply of water from precipitation or from 
underground movements. 

We may think of this body of underground water as existing in 



48 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

the form of a lake or pool; not a lake with a perfectly level surface, 
nor one filled entirely with water, hut an underground lake the upper 
surface of which is inclined in any particular direction, dependent 
upon the relative conditions of supply and exhaustion and the rapidity 
with which water may move through the sands. Let us again refer 
to fig. 1, explained in the introduction, the figure representing the 
underground conditions at Lawrence, in the vicinity of the State 
University. Here we have a* lake in one sense of the term, an area 
holding an excessive amount of water, so that the smallest opening 
made in it is instantly filled by the water flowing into it from all sides, 
just as an opening in a body of water will be filled by the movement of 
the adjacent water from all directions. But the upper surface of this 
lake is not level, because the water movement is so retarded that in 
the lower portions of the ground it can move neither upward nor lat- 
erally as rapidly as the supply is brought from above ; consequently 
there is a piling up of the water similar to the way grain may be 
piled up in a bin. 

This represents the conditions in the western part of Kansas, the 
only essential difference being that the Tertiary sands and gravels 
permit a more rapid movement than can be obtained in the clays at 
Lawrence. This great underground lake or sheet of water is conse- 
quently uneven of surface and variable in depth. A depression in 
the floor will be filled or partially filled, so that the water-bearing 
sands in the valley of the depression will be thicker than on the sides. 
And yet we may have a floor inclined 10 or 20 feet to the mile, with 
the water-bearing sands uniformly distributed over it, so that the 
water will lie at about an equal distance above the surface of the floor 
over the whole plane. 

MEADE COUNTY WELLS. 

The Meade artesian area is located in the valley of Crooked Creek, 
to the northeast of Meade Center, extending from Meade Center to 
Wilburn. This gives it -a length of about 20 miles, with a width in 
places of nearly 6 miles. The area over which artesian water has been 
found to a greater or less extent covers from 60 to 80 square miles. It 
is a broad, flat valley, apparently almost level, with scarcely any irreg- 
ularities of surface within it, except here and there small drainage 
channels which are cut downward from 5 to 8 feet, almost like an arti- 
ficial ditch. On all sides and in every direction from the valley the 
ground is higher, so that there appears to be a natural wall all around 
it. On the east and southeast the wall is from 50 to 100 feet high, 
with gently sloping sides, and the surface is largely covered with sand 
hills. On the north is a gentle rise toward Crooked Creek, producing 
a maximum elevation of about 75 feet between the main part of the 
valley and Crooked Creek itself. But at the northeast, toward Wil- 
burn, the wall is much more abrupt, rising rapidly to a height of 100 
to 140 feet. A few drainage channels originate in the high ground to 






haworth. MEADE COUNTY WELLS. 49 

tlir west and pass across the artesian valley to Crooked Creek. Such 
channels present the appearance of mere ditches throughoul their 
whole length within the valley, usually having their hanks lifted 

higher than the ground some distance back, showing the filling-in 
process to have been carried on by them, as is so commonly done by 
rivers after reaching their base-level. Crooked Creek is, throughoul 
the valley, scarcely distinguishable from some of its tributaries jusl 

described. It is almost insignificant in appearance, generally but a 
few feet wide, and can rarely he observed in the landscape until one 
is within a hundred feet of it, so closely does it resemble an artificial 
ditch in its general characters. It has also lifted its banks higher 
than the adjacent land to so great an extent that in some instances 
the surface a quarter of a mile away is lower than the top of the bank 
immediately at the creek. 

The uplands to the west of the artesian valley increase in height 
rapidly, so that the plains to the north and northwest of Jasper, as 
shown by the Meade topographic sheet, are more than 2,700 feet high 
not more than 10 miles away, while the general elevation of the arte- 
sian valley is between 2,400 and 2,500 feet. The Tertiary ground 
water of the high plains to the west is found at a depth of from 125 to 
150 feet; consequently the level of the water 10 miles to the west of 
the artesian valley is from 100 to 120 feet above the surface of the 
valley itself. • 

The artesian valley throughout is covered with Tertiary or Pleisto- 
cene deposits. The thickness of these formations is not known; the 
different artesian wells vary from 50 to 250 feet in depth, and no one 
of them has yet passed through the formations. To the north, beyond 
Crooked Creek, the Benton is shown at the surface in a few places and 
has been reached in many of the wells. To the northeast, a few miles 
beyond Wilburn, the Dakota was found by different wells. South of 
the valley the Red Beds appear at the surface, as the Benton and 
Dakota gradually grow thinner at the south until they disappear. It 
is further believed that the strata were here faulted so that the Meade 
Valley was sunk to an unknown distance, at least 100 to 150 feet, and 
that it has since been filled in to a considerable extent, probably in 
Pleistocene time. The character of the materials, as shown in the 
borings from different wells here and there over the valley, can not 
be distinguished from the Tertiary materials adjacent on all sides. It 
is composed of silt, clay, sand, and tine gravel, quite irregularly mixed, 
so that there is no greater continuity of the bedding planes than may 
be found in the Tertiary deposits elsewhere. 

The mortar beds produced by the cementing of the coarse sand 
seem to be almost wanting, but here and there the finer sand and 
clay are frequently partially cemented by calcium carbonate, produc- 
ing a certain degree of hardening similar to that observed in the mor- 
tar beds elser. here. In character the cement so frequently assumes 
irr 1 



50 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

a concretionary aspect that it seems probable it was deposited in the 
sands and clays by infiltrating water after they were placed where 
they are now found. The artesian water is drawn from the Tertiary 
or from Pleistocene beds composed of materials in every respect simi- 
lar to the Tertiary materials surrounding the valley upon all sides. 
It seems sharply distinguishable from the Dakota artesian water 
known to exist to the north and northwest. 

The whole of the artesian valley is supplied with the ordinary under- 
ground water, which maybe found at from 5 to 15 feet below the sur- 
face. Its abundance is not known, as no one cares to use it. It would 
seem that it is sharply distinguished from the deeper-lying artesian 
water, as it has no apparent artesian properties. But at the same 
time it must be admitted that we are in relative ignorance regarding 
the reasons why the two are not connected. 

The artesian wells at present in successful operation number con- 
siderably more than 300, an exact enumeration of them not having 
yet been made. In depth the wells vary greatly, some of them being 
but little more than 50 feet deep, while others are as much as 250 feet. 
There is a strong similarity between the materials passed through by 
all the wells if considered in a general way, but a lack of similarity if 
considered in great detail. Each one passes through the surface soil, 
below which it encounters alternations of clay, sand, and soil. The 
sand is frequently partly cemented, so that the well drillers speak of 
it as rock, but the layers thus cemented are rarely more than 12 inches 
thick, and frequently not more than 6 inches. Two wells within 40 
rods of each other found a great variation in the number and relative 
position of the beds of clay, sand, and rock, but all of them passed 
through the same materials. So far as could be learned, there is no 
particular stratum which must be reached before artesian water is 
obtained. A mass of bluish clay, the color showing that considerable 
imoxidized organic matter is contained within it, frequentl\ r rests on 
the top of a bed of uncemented sand, stained yellow with iron rust. 
Such sand always contains water, generally the artesian water, and 
indicates by the degree to which the iron oxide is produced that the 
artesian water is a surface water which has not yet been robbed of its 
supply of oxygen gathered from the atmosphere. 

But few wells have been studied carefully while being drilled. In 
August, 1896, the writer had a well put down especially for making 
an examination. It was located on the land of Mr. W. F. Foster, 
near the center of section 6, township 31 south, range 27 west. The 
drill used was one rented from Mr. Cooper, a well driller living in the 
valley. In addition to the bit on the end, a pump was attached so 
that water was forced down through the drill pipe, causing a constant 
flow upward outside of the pipe, the current bringing up the cuttings 
of the drill. In this way it was impossible to tell within a few inches, 
or possibly a foot or two, of the depth at which a change of material 
was made unless there was a change in the degree of hardness of the 



MEADE COUNTY WELLS. 



r>i 



material, so thai the one turning thedrill could detect the difference. 
The well was carried to a depth of L67 feel and obtained a moderate 

flow of water from a loose, yellow sand. 



Well of Mr. W. /•'. Foster, on section 6, township 31 south, range .'.' west. 



No. of 
■stratum. 



Thich 

Hess (.1 

stratum, 
feet. 



l 

3. 

4. 
5- 
6. 

8] 
9. 

in 

11 

12 
13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

is 
19 



1 >escription i if stral am. 



Soil ami subsoil 

Mortar beds, almost entirely free from sand or gravel, 
small concretionary mass of calcium carbonate in ti-r 
mingled with the day. 

Light-colored clay, grading into gray and grayish-blue 
in color . 

Blue clay which grades into No. 5 

Light-colored clay which grades into No. 6.. 

Blue clay 

Mortar beds similar to No. 2 

Blue clay .. 

At depth of tit! feet began striking thin layers of hard 
substance, which seemed to b3 layers of sand sutfi 
ciently cemented with calcium carbonate to produce 
considerable resistance to the drill. Three or four of 
these were passed during 19 feet. They were sepa- 
rated from each other by beds of blue clay 

A fine white sand at the top, grading into bluish sand 
at the bottom, and which was sufficiently cemented 
with calcium carbonate to produce a relatively solid 
rock.. - - 

Blue clay, at the bottom of which was a hard sandrock 
si milar to those above _ 

Clay, with sand intermingled- 

Light-colored sand 

Soft clay, gra ling into No 15 

Alternating layers of clay and sand sufficiently ce- 
mented to be noticeable 

At 113 feet struck unusually (for this well) hard sand 
rock less than 1 foot thick, below which there was a 
frequent alternation of clay and sand partially ce- 
mented, the layers being from 2 inches to 6 inches 
thick 

At ali >ut 130 'eet a fine sand with clay was struck, a 
light bluish-yellow in color, which was 20 feet thick. . 

At 150 feet the color changed to more of a reddish-brown 

At lii! I feet the sand became coarser and the clay redder 
in color. The drill gradually sank of its own weight, 
occupying less than two minutes in sinking 3 feet, 
while the pump was kept running. At the bottom of 
this formation the clay seemed to disappear almost 
entirely, and the artesian flow came from the coarse, 
yellowish sand... 



Total 

dept li to 

bottom of 

stral urn. 

feet 



91 
102 
105 
106 



130 



150 
160 



167 



It was learned from Mr. Foster and the parties who did the drilling 
that a well previously drilled, located not over 40 rods to the west, 
struck almost none of the harder material. The house well of Mr. 
Marrs, a quarter of a mile to the east, one of the best wells in the 
valley, likewise struck none of the harder materials. Each of these 
two wells was drilled in about four hours' time, which further shows 
the soft character of the materials passed through. It was reported 
that a few wells not more than 50 feet deep have produced consider- 
able amounts of artesian water. From this they increase in depth to 
a maximum of 250 feet, the depth of a well drilled on Mr. Cooper's 
place, about 24 miles to the southwest of the Foster well. 

With but one exception, no well has yet been drilled in this valley 
large enough to admit more than a 3-inch pipe. The drills that 



52 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

have been available for use have been owned localty, and have been 
handled by men who have had but little experience in well drilling 
outside the valley. Usually a gas pipe from 12 to 18 feet long is put 
down to shut off the first water, after which no piping is used. In a 
few instances wells have been piped almost their entire depth. The 
best now flowing gave but little water when first drilled. They had a 
mild flow bringing up sand, the flow increasing as more sand was 
brought out. In some cases two or three wagonloads of sand have 
thus been thrown out by the water, after which time the flow reached 
a maximum amount and the movement of sand almost ceased. Little 
experimenting has been done to determine whether or not an increase 
of water could be produced by properly piping the wells, or by pump- 
ing them vigorously until all the loose sand was removed. It is 
quite possible that flows could be greatly increased by these methods. 

An artesian flow may be found almost anywhere over the valley. 
Yet there are many instances in which wells have been drilled that did 
not yield a sufficient quantity of water to be of value. It is difficult 
to decide, with the data at hand, why some of the wells are successes 
and some are failures. In a few places the surface elevation seems 
to be a little too high. A well in the bottom of a ravine will yield a 
pretty good flow, while in one drilled on the banks near by, the water 
will rise almost to the surface, but not high enough to flow. In other 
instances two or more wells may be close together with the surface 
elevation the same, some of which will be good flowing wells and 
others not. It seems probable that this difference is due to two or 
more causes. The great diversity in the character of the material 
passed through in drilling the different wells makes it certain that 
the clay beds are irregular in formation and distribution. One can 
well understand how the disposition of these beds may cause a vari- 
ation in the results obtained. A mass of clay may cany the water so 
deep that the drill can not reach it. Or it is possible for a mass of 
sand to be entirety surrounded by an impervious clay, so that a drill 
penetrating the sand will receive no flow because there is no pressure 
on the water the sand contains. The heterogeneous character of the 
clay beds, therefore, may be one of the main causes for such differ- 
ences in wells so close together. The experience with wells which 
are of little value for weeks, or even months, after which time they 
become strong flowing wells, shows that in some way they become 
choked with sand, permitting only a mild flow until the sand is 
removed by pumping or otherwise. 

It seems that the northern and western sides of the valley are the 
more productive. At present the best wells are in the northwestern 
portion of the valley, but flowing wells have been obtained all the 
way from Wilburn, on the northeast, to Meade, or possibly a mile or 
two south of Meade, to the southwest. The flow of the wells varies 
from a pailful in five minutes to 45 gallons per minute. Approxi- 



haworth.] MEADE COUNTY WELLS. i">3 

mate measurements have been made of twenty or more of the strong- 
esl wells. A large buckel was accurately measured and filled by the 
(low a number of times, one person handling the bucket, the other 
holding a watch to determine 1 1 1 « - number of seconds required for 
filling the bucket. The test was repeated a number of ti s to elimi- 
nate errors of observation as far as possible. In this way it is believed 
the probable error of measuremenl is not greater than l or _ percent. 
Five or six different wells were found to yi<'l<l 45 gallons per minute. 
Twenty or thirty exist which yielded gallons per minute or more, 
from which the wells grade downward to the minimum flow. 

The water obtained from the wells is largely used for irrigation 
purposes. Many of the wells were simply left flowing, and the water 
allowed to waste, without any attempt to use it. The number of acres 
irrigated is far less than the estimated possibility. 

From data already given regarding elevations in the artesian valley 
and the uplands to the west, it will be seen that the water level from 
5 to 15 miles to the west of the valley is considerably higher than the 
surface of the ground within the valley. The wells along the arroyos 
to the west of the artesian valley have artesian properties which grad- 
ually decrease westward. The depth of the water on the uplands to 
the west is nearly as great a mile away as it is 5 miles away, except- 
ing where the well is located in an arroyo of considerable depth. It 
will not do, therefore, to consider the water on the uplands as moving 
eastward under favorable conditions for creating a pressure through- 
out the whole distance, but rather it should be considered that the 
impervious Cretaceous or Red Bed floor slopes to the east at nearly 
the same rate as the surface, and that the water is gradually moving- 
down this gentle incline toward the east. Here and there, however, 
it passes under local clay beds, which carry the water to lower levels 
than it otherwise would occupy, and a corresponding pressure is set 
up. In some way, as the large artesian area is approached, the water 
descends, and in the descent passes underneath the clay beds of the 
valley, so that a limited pressure is established. 

A few experiments were made to test the height to which water 
would rise in an open tube at the well. All such experiments show 
that the rise is only a few feet, perhaps always less than 20. The 
pressure which causes the flow from the wells, therefore, can not be 
due to the extra height the water has 10 miles to the west, otherwise 
the head would be much greater and the flow correspondingly stronger. 
It would seem rather that the pressure is due to the head generated 
by the gentle dipping downward of the water level as it passes under 
the clay beds near the west border of the artesian area, perhaps rarely 
extending farther away than from 2 to 4 miles. The water in the 
artesian wells seems to be continuous with the general upland water 
to the west. It is like it in character, and the two areas are connected 
by various wells. 

Springs throughout the artesian valley are by no means unknown. 



54 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

A few are located in arro3 T os along the western border. The most 
noted area for springs is in the vicinity of Mr. Simms's ranch, a mile 
and a half north of Fowler. On the eastern side of Crooked Creek, a 
fourth of a mile or more away, a large area is so abundantly supplied 
with springs and seeps that hundreds of acres of land are rendered 
worthless. The springs are principally located just along the border 
line between the valley proper and the higher lands to the east. The 
rank growth of vegetation produced by the moisture has provided a 
tough and heavy sod which protects the softer ground beneath, so that 
the range animals can pass over it with safety, except in the imme- 
diate vicinity of the strongest jdooIs. Here the upward movement of 
the water is so rapid and the sand which is frequently brought, up 
with the water accumulates to such an extent that vegetation does not 
grow for a few feet around the springs. Such areas are death traps 
to range animals. Mr. Simms stated that numerous instances have 
come under his observation of animals becoming ingulfed in the mud 
and sinking out of sight, or, if not out of sight entirely, sinking the 
full length of the body. In many of the springs, by using a long pole, 
one can feel bones at a distance of from 8 to 15 feet below the surface, 
presumably those of buffalo and other wild animals which lost their 
life in the springs. It seems probable that these springs and the 
artesian wells receive their supplies from the same source. The char- 
acter of the water is the same; the location in general is the same; for 
artesian wells can be obtained in the immediate vicinity of the springs, 
and the whole character of the surroundings implies that there is no 
essential difference between the sources of the two classes of water. 
The location of the largest springs is near the southeast valley line, 
along the eastern side of the valley. If the valley has been dropped 
by faulting, the water-bearing sands in the valley are doubtless on a 
level with the Red Beds, or the underlying Dakota on the east. This 
condition would cause springs to be more abundant along the east 
line' than elsewhere. 

Farther south, along the western tributaries to Crooked Creek and 
in the valley of Crooked Creek itself, springs and seeps abound. 
The largest amount of spring water flows through Spring Creek, a 
stream about 3 miles south of Meade. Springs are abundant through- 
out almost the entire length of this stream, but are particularly so 
about 3 miles south of Meade, in section 21. Here most beautiful 
springs exist. At one place with an area of not more than 10 square 
rods, the cold, clear water comes bursting forth from under the mortar- 
beds bluff, forming a stream like a mill race. An approximate 
measurement from this one area gave fully 3 second-feet, which is 
equivalent to more than 2,000 acre-feet, or enough to irrigate more 
than 2,0C0 acres with 12 inches of water each year. This is one of the 
most remarkable groups of springs anywhere in the West. It would 
seem that there is an abundance of water, however, in this one little 
stream to irrigate more than 3,000 acres 12 inches each year, provided 



hawortb MEADE COUNTY WELLS. 55 

it were all used for irrigation purposes and proper care taken to guard 
against waste. Aboul a mile below this group of springs a ditch 
draws water from Spring Creek to irrigate the alfalfa fields on ( "rooked 
L ranch. The remainder of the water passes <>n down the creek, and 
is principally used for stock water, although here and there small 
amounts are taken for irrigal ion. South from Spring (reek the nexl 
most important tributary from the west is Stump Arroyo, a stream 
along which frequenl springs occur, bu1 which does not yield nearly 
so much water. One principal ditch draws water from this creek to 
farms below. All these springs are in the true sense connected with 
the artesian area to the north, and the discussion of them is relevant 
here, because they throw light on the origin of the water in the 
artesian valley. 

Reviewing the whole matter regarding the origin of the water in 
the artesian wells and artesian springs, it must be admitted that it 
seems the water is continuous with the ordinary underground water 
to the west, and that it is therefore a part of the same. It is certainly 
distinct from the Dakota water, and is so deep that we can not think 
it lies above the eastern extension of the water plane on the west. 

It is of great practical importance to arrive at some conclusion 
regarding the amount of available water in the artesian valley, and 
to decide whether or not the continued use year after year is liable to 
destroy the supply. It will hardly do to assume that wells could 
be put down every few rods over the entire valley, eaeh one of which 
would flow independently of the others. Artesian water in almost 
all places thus far observed in any part of the world has been found 
in wells which acted sympathetically with one another. When a 
strong-flowing well is closed, ordinarily adjacent wells have their flow 
accelerated. Few experiments have been thus far made in the Meade 
artesian valley to determine the influence of one well upon another. 
Many inquiries were made of citizens here and there in the valley, 
and conflicting statements were given on these subjects. Some indi- 
viduals were positive that the rapid flow of one well sensibly dimin- 
ished the flow in weaker ones near by, while other farmers as 
emphatically stated that on their farm the flow of one had no influ- 
ence on the flow of another. It is probable that the former class of 
reports are correct ; in fact, it would be quite remarkable were they not. 

This condition need not necessarily argue against the large supply 
of water in the valley. In all eases where wells are close together 
they mutually influence one another, provided the rate of flow 
through the water-bearing strata — sand, gravel, or whatever it may 
be — is not sufficiently great to maintain the flow as long as the supply 
lasts. But most beds of sand and gravel are so close grained that 
there is an appreciable check in the rate of movement of the water in 
the sand, which in most instances will result in the sympathetic 
action of adjacent wells. 



56 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [wo. 8. 

It appears to the writer, therefore, that the question of supply of 
water for artesian wells depends more on the source of the water 
than it does on the mere rapidity of the flow from any well or from a 
group of wells. The facts already given certainly imply, as has 
been seen, that the source is the ordinary ground water to the west 
and northwest. If this is correct, the question of supply is essen- 
tially the same as the question of the supply in the upland areas. 
So long as water exists on the uplands from 5 to 20 or 40 miles 
away, it is probable that it will likewise exist in the artesian wells. 
Could a sufficient number of wells be drilled, and could the flow be 
continued from all of them a sufficient length of time, it seems rea- 
sonable to suppose that a diminution of the supply of water on the 
uplands would first be observed, and later of that in the valley. It 
is probable that the small area, less than 100 square miles, in the 
artesian valley and the valley of Crooked Creek below Meade, could 
drain the whole of the uplands to the west, and that their supply of 
water would not become exhausted so long as there was any available 
water anywhere in the broad plains to the west or northwest. We 
are therefore brought to the consideration of the amount of this 
ground water, a subject discussed later in this report. It is sufficient 
to say here that, in the judgment of the writer, water enough could 
be obtained, were it properly husbanded, to irrigate such parts of the 
Meade artesian valley as anyone is likely to want to irrigate during 
the next half century. 

QUANTITY OF TERTIARY GROUND WATER. 
DIFFICULTY OF ESTIMATION. 

No one can give more than a mere approximation of the amount of 
Tertiary ground water in western Kansas. The wells which thus far 
have been drawing their supply from it, with but few exceptions, have 
shown no indications of failing. A few wells which were located on 
the outer margin of the water area have been known to become 
exhausted by rapid pumping. Others which have only penetrated 
the water-prod ncing sands a few inches, or a foot at most, have like- 
wise been known to fail. But no instances have yet been found of a 
well failing, or seeming to be in failing condition, provided it was 
unquestionably within the water-producing area and had a depth of 
5 feet or more in the water-bearing sand. Of course this does not 
necessarily mean that the supply is inexhaustible, in the true sense of 
the term. But it may well be taken to mean that with any moderate 
amount of pumping — even an amount several times greater than has 
yet been pumped — the supply will not be found wanting. 

It is supposed, and perhaps correctly, that water is more abundant 
in the Arkansas River Valley than on the uplands either north or 
south. More decisive pumping tests have been made here than at any 
place on the uplands. The city well at Garden represents the severest 



ran 



haworth.] QUANTITY OF TERTIARY GROUND WATER. . r )7 

tesl made within this area, a supply sufficient for a town of 2,000 
Inhabitants being furnished. The Largesl pumping planl within the 
state is located in the Arkansas Valley, a1 Hutchinson. Here the 
Hutchinson Packing Company have three pumps which have hn-n 
running constantly for several months, pumping al the rate of about 
1,300 gallons per minute, the equivalent of 5,616,000 gallons per day, 
without appreciably affecting the water supply. This is almost •'! sec- 
ond- feet, an amount approaching the flow from the big springs already 
described along Spring Creek. There is no reason for believing that 
the amount of water here is any greater than anywhere else in the 
valley- from Coolidge to Arkansas City. Alike amount, probably, 
could be pumped from every quarter section of land within the whole 
valley. Should such pumping be done all at once, it doubtless would 
decrease the supply, but no fear need be entertained that the water 
will not be sufficient for all demands that will be made upon it for a 
long time in the future. 

Could the water level in the valley be appreciably lowered, it is 
quite evident that water would be drawn into the valley from the 
upland areas to the south, and to some extent from those to the 
north. The rapidity with which the movement toward the river 
would be made would depend upon a number of conditions, such as 
the degree of exhaustion and the character of the material through 
which the movement takes place. Should the draft be sufficient 
to lower the water in the valley 20 feet, there would result a high 
angle of inclination on the upper surface of the water at either side, 
tending to set up a rapid movement from both sides into the valley. 
Still, a gradient of 20 feet to the mile is less than now exists under 
normal conditions in the area to the north and west of Englewood, 
and yet the water is not drawn away so rapidly but that it is almost 
everywhere present. Should any other area be appreciably exhausted 
by the excessive pumping from a well, or a group of Avells, so that the 
upper surface of the water would be materially lowered, water would 
flow in from all directions to supply the deficiency, and in this way 
the one well would drain a considerable area. 

Is is therefore exceedingly difficult to draw decisive conclusions 
regarding the sum total of the water in the Great Plains of the West, 
judging from the amount that any given well or series of wells may 
produce, so long as the pump does not entirely exhaust the area. All 
that can be said with certainty at the present time is that, with the 
large amount of pumping which has already been done, no indica- 
tions of exhaustion have yet been observed. 

SOURCES OF TERTIARY GROUND WATER. 

It is of great importance to consider the sources of the supply and 
the rapidity with which the supply can be transmitted to different 
localities. Should we look upon the ground water as constituting a 
great reservoir, it is evident that the amount would become entirely 



58 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6.. 

exhausted unless there were a corresponding continuance of the sup- 
ply. Should pumping' be begun from Lake Michigan, it would sooner 
or later entirely exhaust that vast body of water were it not for the 
large additions to its volume every year by the surface drainage of 
adjacent territory. It is possible to determine the amount of pump- 
ing that could be done without appreciably lowering the water in the 
lake, by an estimation of the amount of water added by the surface 
drainage year by j^ear. Likewise the question of the supply of water 
for western Kansas is largely one of the rate of the renewal of the 
ground water. Any estimation on the subject which neglects this 
factor will in practice prove to be faulty, should the time ever come 
when the sum total of exhaustion is more rapid than the rate of sup- 
ply. Enough is known on the subject to demonstrate that pumping 
from the underground reservoir must be many times greater than that 
which has yet been done before the exhaustion will nearly equal the 
rate of supply. In many places throughout the country springs of 
great strength abound, and lesser seeps supply Avater to pools and 
living streams. Should the exhaustion by pumping be appreciable, 
it would first be noticed in the rate of flow of the springs and seeps. 
Nothing of the kind has yet been observed. 

The original source of all the Tertiary waters is precipitation. 
The areas over which this precipitation falls are large and varied. 
In Meade County the average rainfall is about 18 inches per annum, 
a rainfall which varies from year to year and from month to month. 
Sometimes heavy falls are known, reaching from 3 to 4 inches or more 
at a single storm. With such storms an undue proportion of the 
water runs off through the drainage channels, leaving perhaps less 
than half to be absorbed by the ground. At other times the rain is 
so light that it will wet the ground for only a few inches, and entirely 
evaporate within a few days or weeks, so that perhaps no appreciable 
part of the lighter rain joins the general ground water. 

The character of the soil has a great influence on the run-off. In 
the sand hill area to the south of Arkansas River and to the east of 
Crooked Creek, and in the southeastern corner of Meade County, it 
requires an unusually heavy rain for any of the water to join the run- 
off, the whole of it being absorbed and held by the porous sands. On 
the uplands, where the Plains marl is abundant, as well as in the 
river valleys, where a similar soil exists, the character of the soil is 
such that only a small amount of the rainfall is absorbed, while a 
correspondingly large proportion joins the run-off. The conditions 
of the rainfall and the character of the surface soil over the whole of 
the Tertiary of western Kansas and eastern Colorado are about the 
same on the average as in the area covered by this report. Probably 
more than half of the total precipitation falls in severe storms, or in 
light rains. We have, therefore, unfavorable conditions for the 
absorption by the ground of a high per cent of rainfall. No one has 



haworth.] SOURCES OF TERTIARY GROUND WATER. 59 

made any accurate observations on iliis subject wiili a view to deter- 
mining the per cent <Jf the tota] rainfall which is absorbed by the 
ground ; but, as seen in the [ntroduction, il is only a small part of the 
total amounl absorbed thai ever becomes available as water supply. 

The Terl iary format ions extend west, in some places reaching almost 
to the Rocky Mountains, but in other places they are separated from 
the foothills by the high ridge known as Hie "Hogback," and by the 
high divide farther north. Toward Hie mountainous area generally 
the rainfall increases, so that tin 1 average annual precipitation is 
greater than in the west of Kansas. 

A great deal has been said and written regarding the probability 
that precipitation in the mountainous region will reach western Kan- 
sas. It may be added that little, if anything, is positively known on 
the subject. We have the Arkansas River carrying its waters all the 
way from the mountains through the Great Plains. The eastward 
inclination of the surface is such that the water in the bed of the 
stream atone place is higher than the uplands only a few miles below. 
Here and there throughout its course the Benton or Dakota bluffs hem 
the water in, so that it is confined to the channel of the stream. At 
other places such impervious bluffs do not exist, and the loose, porous 
Tertiary sands and gravel spread from the uplands directly down into 
the river valley. There are many places where, so far as the eleva- 
tion of the underground floor itself is concerned, underground water 
may be drawn from the Arkansas River and spread over all the vast 
plains lying below. Whether this actually occurs or not can be deter- 
mined onl} T by a careful and detailed study of the water levels north 
and south of the river. At present we have so few wells in the great 
sand-hill area south of the river in Kansas and Colorado that no con- 
clusion-of value can be reached in this discussion. .The level lines 
have shown that the water in the wells 6 or 8 miles south of the river 
at Garden is at a little lower level than the water in the river itself. 
The same in a general way is true at Dodge. 1 Later investigations 
have added but little information on this subject for the areas covered 
by the sand hills, the difficulty being that so few wells here exist. 

From the meager data at hand, we are forced to conclude that at 
different places throughout its course, so far as the water gradients 
are concerned, ground water might be deflected from the river valley 
southward in its eastward movement and ultimately become a part of 
the great body of ground water on the plains only a few miles farther 
east. If such deflection ever occurs, we have a mass of water gathered 
from the rains and melting snows in the mountainous area being 
carried across the divide by the Arkansas River and ultimately spread- 
ing over the high uplands to the south of the river. This is only one 
of the conditions which are possible, so far as the information now at 

1 Report on Irrigation. 1893. Artesian and Underflow Investigation. Fifty-second Congress- 
first session, Senate Ex. Doc. 41, part 2, pp. 2iJ-27, pis. 10 and 11. 



'60 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

hand indicates. It is entirely improbable, however, that any con- 
siderable proportion of the water in the plains south of the river 
comes from the river itself. It is probable that if a detailed exami- 
nation were made it would be found that the water in the sand-hill 
region is a little higher than in the river. This statement is made 
because it is customary for rivers to serve as drainage channels rather 
than as supply channels. The usual condition is for underground 
drainage to be from the uplands into the rivers, the same as the 
surface drainage. 

Should a considerable proportion of the water be deflected from the 
Arkansas River Valley to the plains at the south, we should find a 
much larger amount of water south of the river than exists to the 
north, unless there is a similar deflection in places to the north. There 
are some reasons for thinking that this may be true. Farther east, 
in Clark, Comanche, Kiowa, Pratt, and Stafford counties, and the level 
lands to the east toward Wichita, there is a larger proportion of 
springs and streams with living water in them than we find in general 
to the north of the Arkansas. But it must be confessed that with so 
few absolute data as are now available regarding the actual amount 
of ground water, arguments pro and con on this question are of little 
worth. A careful study of the subject would be of value. 

At different places along the Arkansas, where the bluff lines of the 
valley are composed of Tertiary material, both in Colorado and Kan- 
sas, soundings should be made at frequent intervals to determine 
accurately the level of the ground-water surface both north and south 
of the river. If it should be found that there is a uniform rise of 
the level outward from the river, this would show that the under- 
ground drainage is uniformly toward the river rather than away from 
it. If, on the contrary, at a,ny time during the year in periods of 
high water it should be found that the ground water at or near the 
river is higher than at localities farther back to the south or north, 
this would seem to show the possibility, and even the probability, of 
water being deflected from the river toward the general uplands. The 
direction of the movement need not be at right angles with the river, 
nor nearly so, but probably would be in directions somewhat similar 
to those usually followed by drainage channels which draw water 
from the river. If such lateral deflections of ground water are made 
to appear probable, there can be no doubt that at least a portion of 
the precipitation over the mountainous areas drained by the Arkansas 
and the Platte rivers may become spread out over the great upland 
plains and furnish an essential part of the plains ground water. If, 
on the other hand, such deflections of ground water in the river val- 
leys are shown to be impossible, it may well be doubted if any of the 
mountainous precipitation joins the ground water of the plains. 

It must be remembered that the underground movement is gov- 
erned largely by the character of the surface of the underground 



baworth SOURCES OP TERTIARY GROUND WATER. 61 

Cretaceous floor which has already been described. There are strong 

geologic reasons for believing that iliis Cretaceous floor ii s1 

places easl of the foothills has a greater elevation than the under- 
ground water level in the greal trough-like area trending north 
and south to tin- west of the " Hogback " and the high divide, so 
thai the eastward motion of the water would be impossible, except 
here and there where there mighl he a channel <>r depression in 
the Cretaceous floor similar to those along the Arkansas and Platte 
rivers. 

Whatever conclusion may ultimately be reached regarding the 
possibility of an eastward underground movement from the moun- 
tains themselves, the rate of the movement of the water through the 
sand is, after all, of the most importance. When water is being 
pumped from a well, it is not so important to know the amount of 
water 10, 50, or 100 miles away, as it is to know the rate of move- 
ment through the sand of the water immediately adjacent the well. 
The maximum supply that the well can furnish will be dependent 
upon the rate of the inflow to the well, and only remotely upon the 
sum total of the water over the whole area. The rate of movement 
is likewise of great importance in considering the total amount of 
available water on the plains as a whole. 

Should the precipitation and the proportion of the precipitation 
which joins the ground water be greatly increased, unless the possi- 
ble rate of underground movement were correspondingly increased, 
available masses of water would tend to pile up where the precipi- 
tation occurs, without sensibly affecting the supply in other parts of 
the country. Those who believe in a mountainous source for a part 
or the whole of the plains water must therefore be able to show 
that the rate of eastward movement is sufficiently rapid sensibly to 
increase the available water at different places on the plains. Other- 
wise the increased precipitation in the mountainous areas would be 
of no avail. 

It is doubtful if laboratory tests are of much value in this discussion, 
because the conditions governing them are not applicable. The incli- 
nation of the surface, the porosity of the strata, the ease with which 
water may pass from one stratum into another as the strata become dis- 
continued, are some of the questions which must be considered. In 
any experiment neglect of any one of these conditions, and probably 
others not yet fully understood, will cause the results obtained to be 
of little if any value in this consideration. We may have a mass of 
sand or gravel largely composed of coarse grains or pebbles, so that 
at first thought it would seem that water would flow freely through 
it. If, however, there is a small amount of silt or clay disseminated 
through the mass, this will have a most important influence. The 
coarse masses of gravel in such cases not only do no good, but do 
harm; for each grain, being impervious, renders just that much space 



62 UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. [no. 6. 

impervious. It is probable that the rate of flow through a hetero- 
geneous bed of this character is governed by the finest materials in 
the bed. Investigations of the subject, therefore, must consider the 
detailed geologic conditions of the area studied. 

SUMMARY. 

In summarizing the foregoing discussions regarding the amount of 
water, it may be concluded that there is a surprisingly large amount 
of water in the Arkansas Valley, and a similarly surprisingly large 
amount on the uplands, although perhaps smaller than in the val- 
ley. The springs along Spring Creek are the best single evidence 
we have of the large amount on the uplands, and the pumping tests 
in the valley, particularly at Hutchinson, are the best tests we have 
of the amount in the valley. These, combined with the almost uni- 
versal presence of water, and the meteorologic and geologic condi- 
tions already explained, furnish good reasons for believing that the 
.amount of ground water under the area here described is sufficient to 
meet anjr demands that will likely be made upon it, even should 
industries spring up in the West which will use many times as much 
water as now seems probable. The greatest needs for western Kan- 
sas now, and for the whole plains area, are better methods of raising- 
water from beneath the surface, and better methods in using it. 

IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT. 

Irrigation is now practiced to a considerable extent in the Arkansas 
Valley and along the Cimarron River and Crooked Creek. Numerous 
small reservoirs and irrigation pumps are also established on the 
uplands, some of which have proved to be surprisingly successful. 
In the valleys the principal crops raised by irrigation are alfalfa and 
fruit, but on the uplands little is irrigated besides gardens and fruit. 

The water in the Arkansas River is so low during the greater part 
of the year that the canals are dry, but in times of freshets they are 
used to a considerable extent, and the thousands of acres of alfalfa and 
orchards and other crops are quite thoroughly irrigated once a j^ear at 
least, and upon the average two or three times. This is sufficient to 
produce a moderate crop of alfalfa during a dry year, while in an ordi- 
nary season it will give from three to four cuttings of hay. 

The acreage varies from year to year, depending upon many matters 
which affect the prosperity of the farmers in that part of the State, 

Several hundred acres are also irrigated in the valley from pumps. 
In most places the water is raised less than 12 feet, so that windmills 
are very efficient, a 14-foot wheel furnishing ample power to run an 
8-inch pump that will throw from 5 to 8 gallons at a stroke. Irrigation 
from mills is on the increase, as it frequently happens that dry 
weather in the spring and early summer is disastrous before water 
from the river is available. 



hawohth.] IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT. 6'3 

Cimarron River carries a Large amounl of water during a part of 
the year and is rarely dry in this part of the State, as it is fed by 
springs from the ground water. Irrigation is practiced to a consider- 
able extenl in differenl places along the valley. The largesl tract 
under water from the river a1 present is the Clearmonl ranch of Col. 
C. I). Perry, at Englewood. This ranch at present has about 1,100 
acres under ditch, but Colonel Perry's plans are to reduce tins amount 
to 800 acres, as he thinks the same amount of Labor expended on a 
smaller acreage will give better returns than when spread over a 
larger piece of land. Formerly general farming was conducted at 
this ranch, but it has been found that with the markets as they have 
recently been it is more profitable to raise 1\h^\ for stock and to mar- 
ket the animals. During the summer of 1896, therefore, no field crops 
of consequence were raised except alfalfa, sorghum, and kaffir corn, 
each of which grows with great luxuriance. PI. XII is a map of Clear- 
niont ranch, showing how the water is drawn from the Cimarron and 
the principal laterals emph^ed in distributing it over the ranch. 

At certain times in the year the water in the Cimarron is slightly 
salty, particularly in dry weather. This apparently produces no bad 
soil effects, principally because the most irrigation is done at times 
when the river is flush and consequently the water least salty. 

The large amount of water furnished by the springs of Spring Creek 
is partially used on the Crooked L ranch, which lies in the valle\~ at 
the junction of Spring Creek and Crooked Creek. Here about 500 
acres are under irrigation, devoted principally to alfalfa, the water 
for which is drawn from Spring Creek. PI. VIII is reproduced from 
a photograph, showing the head of the supply ditch. Below the moutli 
of Spring Creek a few small fields are irrigated from the creek, but 
none so large as the Crooked L ranch. 



HH 



U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



WATEK-bUPPLY PAPER NO. 8 PL. XII 



R. 25 W 




MAP OF CLEARMONT RANCH, NEAR ENGLEWOOD, KANSAS. SHOWING HOW WATER IS DRAWN 
FROM THE CIMARRON AND THE PRINCIPAL LATERALS. 



NDEX. 



Page. 

Area considered, limits of 19 

Arroyo erosion, peculiarities of - 25-26 

Artesian properties of water derived 

from the Dakota sandstone ... 11 12 

Artesian waters, areas of 48 56 

Artesian wells, number and depth of — 50 
Benton formation, character and occur- 

renceof 31-33 

Black oxide of iron, deposits of 32 33 

Cimarron River, irrigation from 63 

Cimarron River Valley, features of 21-22 

Clay deposits, occurrence of 33 

Clearmont ranch, irrigation at 63 

Crooked Creek Valley and fault, descrip- 
tion of... -. 22 31 

Crooked L ranch, irrigation at 55,63 

Dakota sandstone, features of 30-31 

water of 38-43 

how to find 43-43 

Darton, N. H., cited 4:2 

Evaporation, observations on 11-12 

Foster, W. F., well of 50-51 

Geography and limits of the area dis- 
cussed 19-20 

Geology of the area 26-37 

Gilbert, G. K., cited 38 

Gravel beds, occurrence of 32 

Ground water, facts concerning 14-10 

geologic conditions governing 15-17 

methods of locating _ 17-19 

Gypsum, occurrence of ... 28 

Hutchinson, pumping plant at 57 

Iron oxide, deposits of 32-33 

Irrigation development 62-63 

Lawrence, Kansas, peculiar conditions 

governing digging of a well at.. 15-17,48 
IRR 6 5 



Page. 

Limits of the area considered Id 

Lyons, Kansas, water conditions in salt. 

mine at 18 

Meade County, wells in.. 48 ">u 

•' Mortar beds," occurrence of :tl :jf> 

geologic place of 37 

Perry, C. D., irrigation by. t;:s 

Physiography of the area 20-26 

Plains marl, occurrence of 33-34 

Pumps, irrigation by 63 

Red Beds, features of 27 30 

Runoff, discussion of 12-13 

influence of character of soil on 58-59 

Salt deposits, occurrence of _ 28 

Simms's ranch, springs near 54 

Sand deposits, occurrence of 32 

Sand dunes, occurrence of 24-25 

Soil moisture, observations on 14 

Springs, occurrence of 53-55 

Tertiary formations, character and oc- 
currence of 33-37 

Tertiary ground water, discussion of 43-62 

depth and level of 43-48 

wells from. 48-56 

quantity of 56 

sources of... 57-62 

Underground level of water 45-48 

" Volcanic ash," deposits of 33 

Water supply of the area.. 37-62 

Wells, artesian, number and depth of 50 

Wells, Lawrence 16-1 7 

Atwater 33 

Cimarron 33 

Coolidge 39-41 

SantaFe .*.. 40 

Meade County 48-56 

65 



1894. 

Report on agriculture by irrigation in the western part of tlio United States at the 
eleventh census, 1890, by b\ H.Newell, 1894, quarto, 283 pp. 

Consists of -.i general description of tlio condition of irrigation in tho United States, tlio area 
irrigated, cost or works, their value and profits; also describes the water supply, the value of 
water, or artesinu wells, reservoirs, and other details ; then takes up each State and Territory 
in order, }i'i\ ing a general description of the condition of agriculture by irrigation, and discusses 
the physical condition and local peculiarities in each county. 

Fourteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1892-93, in two 
parts, Part II, Accompanying papers, 1891, octavo, 597 pp. 

Contains papers on potable waters of the eastern United States, by WJMcGee; natural 
mineral waters of the United States, by A.C.Peale; results of stream measurements, by F.H. 
Newell, Illustrated by maps and diagrams. 

1895. 

Sixteenth Animal Report of tho United States Geological Survey, 1894-95, Part II, 
Papers of an economic character, 1895, octavo, 598 pp. 

Contains a paper on the public lauds and their water supply, by F. H. Newell, illustrated by 
a large map snowing the relative extent and location of the vacantpublic lands; also a report 
on the water resources of a portion of the Great Plains, by Itobert Hay. 

A geological roconnoissance of northwestern Wyoming, hy George H. Eldridgo, 1894, 
octavo, 72 pp. Bulletin No. 119 of the United States Geological Survey; price, 
10 cents. 

Contains a description of the geologic structure of portions of the Big Horn Range and Big 
Horn Basin, especially with reference to the coal fields, and remarks upon the water supply and 
agricultural possibilities. 

Report of progress of the division of hydrography for the calendar year 1893-94, by 
F. H. Newell, 1895, octavo, 176 pp. Bulletin No. 131 of the United States 
Geological Survey; price, 15 cents. 

Contains results of stream measurements at various points, mainly within the arid region 
and records of wells in a number of counties in western Nebraska, western Kansas, and eastern 
Colorado. 

1896. 

Seventeentli Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1895-96, Part II, 
Economic geology and hydrography, 1896, octavo, 864 pp. 

Contains papers by G. K. Gilbert on the underground water of the Arkansas Valley in eastern 
Colorado; by Frank Leverett ou the water resources of Illinois; and by N. H. Darton on a 
reconnaissance of the artesian areas of a portion of the Dakotas. 

Artesian-well prospects in the Atlantic Coastal Plain region, by N. H. Darton, 1896, 
octavo, 230 pp., 19 plates. Bulletin No. 138 of tho United States Geological 
Survey ; price, 20 cents. 

Gives a description of the geologic conditions of tho coastal region from Long Island, N. T., 
to Georgia, and contains data relating to many of the deep wells. 

Report of progress of the division of hydrography for the calendar year 1895, by F. 
H. Newell, hydrographer in charge, 1896, octavo, 356 pp. Bulletin No. 140 of 
the United States Geological Survey ; price, 25 cents. 

Contains a description of the instruments and methods employed in measuring streams and 
the results of hydrographic investigations in various parts of the United States. 

Survey bulletins can be obtained only by prepayment of cost as noted above. 
Postage stamps, checks, and drafts can not be accepted. Money should be trans- 
mitted by postal money order or express order, made payable to the Director of the 
United States Geological Survey. Correspondence relating to the publications of 
the Survey should be addressed to The Director, United States Geological Survey, 
Washington, D. C. 






WATER-SUPPIiY AKD IRBIGATIOK PAPERS. 

1. Pumping water for irrigation, by Herbert M. Wilson, 1896. 

2. Irrigation near Phoenix, Arizona, by Arthur P. Davis, 1897. 

3. Sewage irrigation, by George W. Rafter, 1897. 

4. A reconnoissance in southeastern Washington, by Israel C. Russell, 1897. 

5. Irrigation practice on the Great Plains, by E. B. Cowgill, 1897. 

6. Underground waters of southwestern Kansas, by Erasmus Haworth, 1897, 

7. Seepage waters of northern Utah, by Samuel Fortier. 

8. Windmills for irrigation, by E. C. Murphy. 

9. Irrigation near Greeley, Colorado, by David Boyd. 

10. Irrigation in Mesilla Valley, New Mexico, by F. C. Barker, 
In addition to the above, there are in various stages of preparation about twenty 
other papers relating to the measurement of streams, the storago of water, the 
amount available from underground sources, the efficiency of windmills, the cost of 
pumping, and other details relating to the methods of utilizing the water resources 
of the country. Provision has been made for printing these by the following clause 
in the sundry civil act making appropriations for the year 1896-97 : 

Provided, That hereafter the reports of the Geological Survey in relation to the 
gauging of streams and to the methods of utilizing the water resources may be 
printed in octavo form, not to exceed 100 pages in length and 5,000 copies in num- 
ber; 1,000 copies of which shall be for the official use of the Geological Survey, 
1,500 copies shall be delivered to the Senate, and 2,500 copies shall be delivered to 
tho House of Representatives, for distribution. (Approved, June 11, 1896 ; Stat. L., 
vol. 29, p. 453.) 

Application for these papers should be made either to members of Congress or to 
The Director, 

United States Geological Survey, 

Washington, J). C, 




G. P. 0., Apr., '05. 



LIBRARY OF 



CONGRESS 



,0 019 953 657 6 



